Dissertation Replication Materials

Flood Risk Information, Floodplain Map Updates, and Property Values in Cook County, Illinois

Overview

This website provides supporting tables, figures, code notes, and documentation for my dissertation research on flood risk information and residential property values in Cook County, Illinois. It also has a lot of my side quests that were explored but not incuded in the dissertation document.

The dissertation examines how housing markets respond to different forms of flood risk information, including FEMA Flood Insurance Rate Map updates and non-governmental flood risk information from First Street Foundation Flood Factor scores.

The materials hosted here are intended to make the dissertation analysis more transparent, reproducible, and easier to navigate.

Research Questions

Research Question 1

How do residential property values respond when FEMA floodplain maps are updated and properties are added to or removed from the Special Flood Hazard Area?

This portion of the analysis focuses on FEMA Flood Insurance Rate Map updates, including preliminary and effective floodplain designations.

Research Question 2

How do residential property values respond to the public availability of First Street Foundation Flood Factor scores?

This portion of the analysis examines whether properties with higher Flood Factor scores sold for less after this information became publicly available, and whether those effects differed by existing FEMA floodplain status and region within Cook County.

Website Contents

The pages below organize the main tables, figures, and supporting analyses.

Work in progress. Sorry future me if page references don’t work.

Navigation Section	Page	Description
Website Info	Website Info	Landing page for the dissertation replication materials website.
Background Info	Background Info	Descriptive statistics and background information for the Cook County dissertation data.
Q1: FEMA FIRM Info	Q1: FEMA FIRM Tables	Main tables and supporting results for the FEMA Flood Insurance Rate Map update analysis.
Q2: Flood Factor Info	Q2: Flood Factor Marginal Effects	Main marginal effects tables and supporting results for the First Street Flood Factor analysis.
Q2: Flood Factor Info	Flood Factor Variable Checks	Robustness checks comparing binary, ordinal, and continuous Flood Factor variables in model specifications.
Additional Details	File Information	Notes on files, outputs, and supporting materials included in the website.

Data Sources

The analysis combines several property, flood risk, and spatial data sources, including:

Cook County residential property sales data
Cook County parcel data
FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer data
FEMA Flood Insurance Rate Map panel information
Microsoft building footprint data
First Street Foundation Flood Factor data

Some source data may not be redistributed directly through this website because of file size. Where direct redistribution is not possible, this site documents the relevant data source, processing steps, and derived variables used in the analysis.

Reproducibility Notes

The website is designed to display final tables and figures without rerunning every model during each site build.

Spatial data and data cleaning/merging largely take place in the _targets.R file. Models and exploration are done in the .qmd files.

Repository Structure

The project is organized roughly as follows:

├── index.qmd
├── descriptive_stats.qmd
├── rq1-desertation_tables.qmd
├── rq1-extended-twfe.qmd
├── rq1-assumptions-diagnostics.qmd
├── rq1-robustness.qmd
├── rq2-dissertation_tables.qmd
├── rq2-assumptions-diagnostics.qmd
├── rq2-robustness.qmd
├── scripts/
│   ├── setup_data.R
│   ├── helper_control_groups.R
│   ├── helper_tables.R
│   ├── helper_figures.R
│   ├── run_models_rq1.R
│   └── run_models_rq2.R
├── outputs/
│   ├── q2_models/
│   │   ├── tables/
│   │   ├── figures/
│   │   └── models/
│   ├── q2_marginal_effects/
│   │   ├── tables/
│   │   ├── figures/
│   │   └── models/
│   ├── tables/
│   ├── figures/
│   └── models/
└── data/
    ├── raw/
    └── processed/

--- title: "Dissertation Replication Materials" subtitle: "Flood Risk Information, Floodplain Map Updates, and Property Values in Cook County, Illinois" format: html: toc: true toc-depth: 2 number-sections: false --- # Overview This website provides supporting tables, figures, code notes, and documentation for my dissertation research on flood risk information and residential property values in Cook County, Illinois. It also has a lot of my side quests that were explored but not incuded in the dissertation document. The dissertation examines how housing markets respond to different forms of flood risk information, including FEMA Flood Insurance Rate Map updates and non-governmental flood risk information from First Street Foundation Flood Factor scores. The materials hosted here are intended to make the dissertation analysis more transparent, reproducible, and easier to navigate. # Research Questions ## Research Question 1 How do residential property values respond when FEMA floodplain maps are updated and properties are added to or removed from the Special Flood Hazard Area? This portion of the analysis focuses on FEMA Flood Insurance Rate Map updates, including preliminary and effective floodplain designations. ## Research Question 2 How do residential property values respond to the public availability of First Street Foundation Flood Factor scores? This portion of the analysis examines whether properties with higher Flood Factor scores sold for less after this information became publicly available, and whether those effects differed by existing FEMA floodplain status and region within Cook County. # Website Contents The pages below organize the main tables, figures, and supporting analyses. > Work in progress. Sorry future me if page references don't work. | Navigation Section | Page | Description | |---|---|---| | Website Info | [Website Info](index.qmd) | Landing page for the dissertation replication materials website. | | Background Info | [Background Info](descriptive_statistics.qmd) | Descriptive statistics and background information for the Cook County dissertation data. | | Q1: FEMA FIRM Info | [Q1: FEMA FIRM Tables](dissertation_tables.qmd) | Main tables and supporting results for the FEMA Flood Insurance Rate Map update analysis. | | Q2: Flood Factor Info | [Q2: Flood Factor Marginal Effects](dissertation_tables_Q2_marginaleffects.qmd) | Main marginal effects tables and supporting results for the First Street Flood Factor analysis. | | Q2: Flood Factor Info | [Flood Factor Variable Checks](q2_FF_variable_checks.qmd) | Robustness checks comparing binary, ordinal, and continuous Flood Factor variables in model specifications. | | Additional Details | [File Information](file_info.qmd) | Notes on files, outputs, and supporting materials included in the website. | # Data Sources The analysis combines several property, flood risk, and spatial data sources, including: - Cook County residential property sales data - Cook County parcel data - FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer data - FEMA Flood Insurance Rate Map panel information - Microsoft building footprint data - First Street Foundation Flood Factor data Some source data may not be redistributed directly through this website because of file size. Where direct redistribution is not possible, this site documents the relevant data source, processing steps, and derived variables used in the analysis. # Reproducibility Notes The website is designed to display final tables and figures without rerunning every model during each site build. Spatial data and data cleaning/merging largely take place in the _targets.R file. Models and exploration are done in the .qmd files. # Repository Structure The project is organized roughly as follows: ```text ├── index.qmd ├── descriptive_stats.qmd ├── rq1-desertation_tables.qmd ├── rq1-extended-twfe.qmd ├── rq1-assumptions-diagnostics.qmd ├── rq1-robustness.qmd ├── rq2-dissertation_tables.qmd ├── rq2-assumptions-diagnostics.qmd ├── rq2-robustness.qmd ├── scripts/ │ ├── setup_data.R │ ├── helper_control_groups.R │ ├── helper_tables.R │ ├── helper_figures.R │ ├── run_models_rq1.R │ └── run_models_rq2.R ├── outputs/ │ ├── q2_models/ │ │ ├── tables/ │ │ ├── figures/ │ │ └── models/ │ ├── q2_marginal_effects/ │ │ ├── tables/ │ │ ├── figures/ │ │ └── models/ │ ├── tables/ │ ├── figures/ │ └── models/ └── data/ ├── raw/ └── processed/ ```