Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

Date

2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Department

Business Administration

Committee Chair

Velma Zahirovic-Herbert

Committee Member

Dongwoo Kim

Committee Member

Jeff Black

Committee Member

Mark Sunderman

Abstract

This dissertation consists of two essays in empirical real estate that examine how risk and market frictions shape asset valuation and market outcomes, using real estate markets as the primary empirical setting. The first essay investigates how localized crime risk influences the capitalization of urban green infrastructure into residential property values. The second essay examines how market frictions and local risk conditions affect the timing of asset disposition in distressed property markets. The first essay investigates how crime, as a localized risk factor, influences the capitalization of urban green infrastructure into residential property values. While greenlines and greenways are typically viewed as amenities that enhance property values through improved accessibility, recreation, and neighborhood appeal, their effects depend critically on local safety conditions. Using property transaction data and detailed crime measures from Shelby County, Tennessee, this study employs a hedonic pricing model and a spatial Difference-in-Differences framework to examine how proximity to greenlines interacts with neighborhood risk. The findings indicate that although greenlines are generally associated with higher property values, these benefits are significantly moderated, and in some cases reversed, by crime, particularly property crime. In high-crime areas, proximity to greenlines reduces property values, suggesting that perceived risk offsets amenity benefits. These results highlight the importance of risk in shaping asset valuation and the conditional nature of amenity capitalization. The second essay examines how market frictions and local risk conditions influence the timing of asset disposition in distressed property markets. Specifically, it studies the progression of tax-delinquent properties through the tax-sale pipeline, focusing on how local risk and spatial frictions affect resolution outcomes. Using parcel-level data on tax-delinquent properties in Shelby County, this study applies survival analysis methods, including Cox proportional hazard models, competing-risk models, and discrete-time hazard models, to analyze the duration from initial delinquency to tax-sale auction or alternative resolution. The results show that proximity to public investment corridors alone is not a consistent predictor of outcomes once neighborhood characteristics are accounted for. Instead, local crime conditions play a more substantial role, with different types of crime exhibiting distinct effects on the speed of resolution. Additionally, spatial clustering of distressed properties emerges as an important friction shaping tax-sale dynamics. These findings contribute to the literature by linking local risk and market frictions to asset disposition and market outcomes in distressed environments.

Comments

Data is provided by the student.

Library Comment

Dissertation or thesis originally submitted to ProQuest/Clarivate.

Notes

Open Access

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