Housing investment, sea level rise, and climate change beliefs

We investigate the association of new housing construction with sea level rise exposure and climate change beliefs. We combine U.S. Census construction permits data, sea level rise projections, county-level climate change belief estimates (Howe et al., 2015), and standard housing controls. The results suggest that (i) sea level rise vulnerability is associated with significantly reduced construction in areas with high climate change beliefs, but that (ii) this relationship is significantly attenuated in more skeptical areas, suggesting that climate skepticism may be delaying adaptation.