Date of Award
8-2025
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
Economics
Committee Chair/Advisor
Scott Templeton
Committee Member
Babur De los Santos
Committee Member
Robert Fleck
Abstract
This paper aims to estimate the effect of Georgia’s shift in its prescribed fire tort liability standard from simple negligence to gross negligence on the area burned by wildfires on privately owned land. In response to wildfire damage, some states in the Southeast relaxed their liability standards, aiming to promote more prescribed burns and to better control future wildfires. Using the variation of these policy changes, I construct difference-in-difference models to estimate the treatment effect of Georgia’s policy change in July 2000, using counties in North and South Carolina as the control group. I stagger my regressions, adding covariates and county fixed effects to get a more accurate estimate of the treatment effect. Upon dividing the fires by class sizes of A-B, fires less than 10 acres, and class C, fires 10 to 100 acres, there is a statistically significant effect at the 1\% level, with the treatment preventing a 0.478 acre reduction in average fire size for the smaller fire group. The results of the difference-in-difference regressions suggest no significant effect of the policy change on the class C wildfires. This illustrates a potential unintended consequence of the policy, which should be considered in future reforms.
Recommended Citation
Phillips, John Patrick, "The Effect of Tort Liability for Prescribed Burns on Wildfire Severity: Evidence From Georgia’s 2000 Policy Reform" (2025). All Theses. 4601.
https://open.clemson.edu/all_theses/4601