We examine the value of terroir—the set of special characteristics of a location that impart unique qualities to the wine produced. We conduct a hedonic analysis of vineyard sales in the Willamette Valley of Oregon to ascertain whether site attributes—such as slope, aspect, elevation, and soil types—or designated appellations are more important determinants of price. We find that prices are strongly determined by appellation designations, but not by specific site attributes. These results indicate that the concept of terroir matters economically, but that the reality of terroir—as proxied by locational attributes—is not significant.

Environmental markets are widely prescribed as an alternative to open access regimes for natural resources. We develop a model of dynamic groundwater extraction to demonstrate how a spatial regression discontinuity design that exploits a spatially incomplete market for groundwater rights recovers a lower bound on the market’s net benefit. We apply this estimator to a major aquifer in water-scarce southern California and find that a groundwater market generated substantial net benefits, as capitalized in land values. Heterogeneity analyses point to gains arising in part from rights trading, enabling more efficient water use across sectors. Additional findings suggest that the market increased groundwater levels.