RSI Research Seminar

Join us every other Monday at noon for lunch and a 30-minute research talk, presented by Resnick Sustainability Institute Graduate Fellows and Caltech researchers funded by the Resnick Sustainability Institute. To see the full schedule of speakers, visit the RSI Research Seminar web page. Seminars currently take place in a hybrid format, both in-person (Jorgensen building first-floor conference room) and via Zoom. For more information and to get the Zoom login info, please reach out to [email protected]

Policy to Pollute: Strategic Bargaining and Dissolved Oxygen Depletion in Streams and Rivers in the American West: The Case of American Indian Water Rights

Do legal institutions worsen water quality? I investigate whether lengthy and expensive processes for quantifying American Indian water rights, which have long-been judicially recognized, but not enforced or implemented, engenders pollution. I create the first granular spatial dataset mapping, networking, and connecting millions of water-quality readings in U.S. streams and rivers with official start and end dates for tribal water-rights adjudications. I find causal evidence that water pollution worsens as a result of proceedings upstream of reservations, especially close to the border. This worsening stops once rights are settled, illustrating key predictions of the property-rights literature.