Using Residential Sorting Behavior to Better Understand the Relationship Between Urban Greenspace and Health

A recent wave of research in public health finds associations between the proximity of an individual to greenspace and various health outcomes, including obesity, cardiovascular disease rates, depression, and anxiety. Based on these associations, it is sometimes assumed that better access to parks will lead to improved health outcomes. My project addresses this assumption by focusing on an issue sometimes ignored in this literature: people sort themselves into neighborhoods based on the characteristics of those neighborhoods and their personal preferences. Using observed neighborhood location decisions by young adults from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), I find evidence that accounting for time varying unobservables is crucial when estimating the relationship between greenspace and health. My study complements the current literature by yielding new evidence on how greenspace amenities impact health outcomes, and how heterogeneous amenity valuations may account for observed greenspace/health associations.