Valuing Localized Externalities: Hog Operations in North Carolina

In the early 1990s, eastern North Carolina experienced a boom in industrial hog production. Among the negative externalities generated by this activity, residential property value losses due to operation proximity are some of the most significant. This paper discusses the impact of hog operation presence on median housing values for census tracts and blocks (the smallest geographic unit the Census Bureau keeps data on). It concludes that measuring localized externalities at the tract level yields insignificant results, but that measuring these at the block level accurately shows the marginal impacts on housing values.