Katherine A. Kiel

Economics and Accounting Environmental Studies Professor Ph.D., University of California, San Diego   Fields: Environmental Economics, Urban Economics

Dr. Katherine Kiel is a Professor in Economics at the College of the Holy Cross. She received her A.B. from Occidental College and her Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California at San Diego where she did research on housing appreciation rates. Her current research is on the impact of various kinds of pollution on housing prices. She has published articles in the areas of real estate price indices, racial discrimination in the housing market, and the demand for environmental quality in the U.S. Her work has appeared in the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Land Economics, the Journal of Urban Economics and other peer-reviewed journals. She is a board member for the New England Economic Partnership, a non-profit organization that provides objective economic analyses and forecasts for the New England area.  She has taught at the University of San Diego, Brandeis University, Northeastern University and Wellesley College.

Research

My research in urban and microeconomics focuses on housing markets and environmental issues. I have written papers on mobility and tenure choice, housing market discrimination, and the accuracy of owner's valuation of their housing units. I have also written on the impact of local environmental changes to house values, and how one can use those values to estimate demand curves for environmental goods, and to estimate the benefits from removing environmental externalities from neighborhoods.