Luorao Bian

Biography

I am a Ph.D. candidate in Economics at the University of California, Santa Barbara. My fields are Environmental, Labor, Urban, and Health Economics. My research uses quasi-experimental designs and high-resolution spatial data to examine how environmental conditions and labor market regulations affect health, inequality, and welfare in cities. In my job market paper, I use fine-resolution spatial data to study the environmental costs of place-based labor policies and their welfare implications. The results show that unintended traffic congestion and air quality effects can shift the welfare impacts far from the intended policy goals. In earlier work, I also examined the health impacts of the urban heat island effect.

Job Market Paper Title

"The Environmental Implications of Place-Based Policy: Evidence from Minimum Wage Ordinances"

Abstract

Place-based policies aim to boost local economies and improve welfare. This pa- per examines city minimum wage ordinances, a popular place-based labor regulation intended to raise earnings and living standards for low-wage workers in over 60 U.S. cities. Using variation in timing and intensity across 17 California cities in the 2010s, I show that higher local wage floors increase rents and incentivize workers to live and work in neighboring areas outside the policy jurisdiction. These spatial shifts alter com- muting patterns, increase traffic congestion, and worsen air quality, with neighboring areas affected even more than policy cities, despite not being the direct policy targets. The worsening of air quality disproportionately affects poorer and minority communities, partly due to their limited adaptation capacity rather than workers re-sorting into these neighborhoods. Simulations combining a traffic-emissions model with a particle- dispersion model attribute up to 2.8% of traffic-related emissions and 15 additional annual deaths to the ordinances. For low-wage workers, the costs of these unintended externalities offset 40% of the intended wage gains. In summary, the results suggest that environmental externalities, acting through the displacement channel, can drive the welfare impacts of place-based policies far from their intended goals.

JEL Codes: J31, J61, Q53, R41