SBCA Announces Winner of 2023 Jerry Ellig Award for Best Student Paper

The Society for Benefit-Cost Analysis (SBCA) has announced the 2023 winner of the Jerry Ellig Award for Best Student Paper. The award, which is supported by donations to the Regulatory Studies Center’s Jerry Ellig Memorial Fund, provides a prize for the best graduate student paper presented at the annual conference that applies economic, law, political science, policy analysis, and/or public administration concepts to real policy problems.

Fang-Yu (Elise) YEH is a doctoral candidate in Economics (PhD 2024) at the University of Kentucky. Elise presented her paper, Map Updates and Flood Events on Kentucky's Housing Market, impressing the selection committee with her application of economic analysis to understand and improve FEMA’s regulatory policies to better serve the housing and flood insurance markets.

Elise’s research analyzes changes in Zillow’s ZTRAX housing property transaction data in flood-prone areas to understand the economic impact of flooding on communities. She finds that homebuyers update their flood risk belief based on not only FEMA’s floodplain maps but also recent flooding events: specifically, Elise reports that housing values in her study decreased by 6.5 percent when a property is mapped into a floodplain in an area that has experienced a large flood within a year, and increased by 4 percent when a property is removed from a flood zone in an area without flooding recently. Additionally, the paper shows that the response to changes in flood risk varies among homebuyers of different neighborhood characteristics.

“One of the primary challenges for FEMA in maintaining floodplain maps is ensuring that they are accurate and up-to-date,” Elise said. “This information should take into account not only the flood zone status of a property, but also other relevant factors such as topography, drainage patterns, and previous flooding events." She emphasized a policy solution “for FEMA and local governments to increase education and outreach efforts about flood risk and the importance of flood insurance in order to reduce the asymmetric responses by homebuyers from different socio-economic statuses.”

Elise plans to continue her research focus on environmental economics after graduation. “One of the ways I can apply benefit-cost analysis to my research is to study the unintended consequences of environmental policies and regulations affecting different communities. From an environmental justice perspective, it is crucial to estimate the benefits and costs not just for society but also among disadvantaged populations.”

One of Dr. Ellig’s works has been influential for Elise as she pursues a future role in economic policy analysis. “I enjoyed reading Ellig’s paper, Regulatory Process, Regulatory Reform, and the Quality of Regulatory Impact Analysis,” she said. “It was helpful for understanding how a well-designed regulatory process can enhance the quality of RIAs, and how agencies can consider the full range of costs and benefits of their regulations.”

In addition to the award’s monetary prize, Elise said participating in the essay competition has been beneficial to her professional development. “The SBCA conference helped me refine my presentation skills. I received comments and feedback from other presenters which were helpful for summarizing my research project. I also got the opportunity to learn about other people’s research and how they apply it to benefit-cost analysis, which exposed me to some new research questions and inspires new ideas for future projects.”

The Ellig Award recognizes the best graduate student paper presented at the SBCA Annual Conference that applies economic, law, political science, policy analysis, and/or public administration concepts to real policy problems. Read more about Professor Jerry Ellig and our efforts to honor his legacy through the Ellig Memorial Fund for Applied Policy Analysis.