@article{ref1,
title="Before a fall: impacts of earthquake regulation on commercial buildings",
journal="Economics of disasters and climate change",
year="2018",
author="Timar, Levente and Grimes, Arthur and Fabling, Richard",
volume="2",
number="1",
pages="73-90",
abstract="We test whether the major earthquakes in Christchurch (Canterbury, New Zealand) affected prices of earthquake-prone commercial buildings in Wellington, a city that was directly unaffected by the disaster. Specifically, we test whether official declaration of a Wellington building as earthquake-prone (with a requirement for remediation to minimum earthquake code standards) had an effect on sale price relative to similarly earthquake-prone (but yet-to-be-declared) buildings. We find that the price discount accompanying an earthquake-prone declaration in the CBD averages 45% whereas there is no observable discount on buildings yet-to-be-declared as earthquake-prone. Sale prices of currently-declared earthquake-prone commercial buildings in the suburbs also fell, but not as markedly. The sale probability of officially declared earthquake-prone buildings in Wellington rose markedly after the Christchurch earthquakes unlike the sale probability of yet-to-be-declared earthquake-prone buildings which fell slightly, reflecting buyer caution about such buildings. This pattern is indicative of forced sale of buildings following an official earthquake-prone declaration.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="2511-1280",
doi="10.1007/s41885-017-0019-9",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s41885-017-0019-9"
}