Literature Review
Conduct a structured literature search and synthesis for the sewage-house-prices project.
Input: $ARGUMENTS — a topic, paper title, research question, or phenomenon.
Project-Specific Context
Core Literature Strands
- Environmental disamenity capitalisation — Hedonic pricing of pollution, noise, flood risk on house prices
- Water quality and property values — Clean/dirty water effects on housing markets
- UK water industry — Privatisation, regulation, sewage overflows, EDM monitoring
- Hedonic pricing methodology — Rosen (1974), Palmquist (1982), repeat sales, spatial approaches
- Infrastructure and house prices — Transport, utilities, public goods capitalisation
- Rental market effects — Disamenity capitalisation in rental vs owner-occupied markets
- Media and information effects — How news coverage affects price discovery
Target Journals (by tier)
Tier 1 (General): AER, Econometrica, QJE, JPE, REStud
Tier 2 (Field): JEEM, Journal of Urban Economics, Regional Science and Urban Economics, Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Ecological Economics, Environmental and Resource Economics
Tier 3 (Applied/Policy): JEEA, Journal of Applied Econometrics, Economics Letters, Land Economics, Environment and Planning B
Existing Bibliography
- Check
docs/overleaf/refs.bib for papers already in the project
- Check
docs/lit_review/ for any literature notes
Workflow
Step 1: Context Gathering
- Parse the topic from
$ARGUMENTS
- Read
docs/overleaf/refs.bib for papers already in the project
- Check the manuscript sections in
docs/overleaf/ for existing literature discussion
Step 2: Search Protocol
Search in this order:
- Top-5 general interest journals (AER, Econometrica, QJE, JPE, REStud)
- Field journals (JEEM, JUE, RSUE, JREFE, EE, ERE)
- NBER/SSRN/IZA working papers
- Citation chains (forward + backward from key papers found)
- UK-specific policy sources (Ofwat, Environment Agency, DEFRA)
Use web search to find recent and relevant papers.
Step 3: Assess and Annotate
For each paper found, assign a proximity score (1-5):
- 1 = Directly competes (same question, similar data/method)
- 2 = Closely related (same outcome or same treatment, different context)
- 3 = Methodologically relevant (same identification strategy, different topic)
- 4 = Background context (theoretical foundation, institutional detail)
- 5 = Tangentially related
Step 4: Identify Gaps
Check for:
- Missing seminal papers in hedonic pricing or environmental capitalisation
- Missing recent UK water quality studies
- Missing methodological context for the identification strategies used
- Coverage across journal quality tiers
Step 5: Present Results
# Literature Review: [Topic]
**Date:** YYYY-MM-DD
**Query:** [Original query]
## Summary
[2-3 paragraph overview of the state of the literature]
## Key Papers
### [Author (Year)] — [Short Title]
- **Journal:** [venue]
- **Proximity:** [1-5 score]
- **Contribution:** [1-2 sentences]
- **Identification:** [DiD / IV / RDD / hedonic / descriptive]
- **Key finding:** [result with effect size]
- **Relevance to sewage project:** [specific connection]
## Thematic Organization
### Environmental Disamenity Capitalisation
### Water Quality and Property Values
### Identification Strategy Literature
### UK Water Industry Context
## Gaps and Opportunities
1. [Gap 1 — what's missing and how our paper fills it]
2. [Gap 2]
## Research Frontier
### Active Debates
### Recent Working Papers
### Emerging Methods
## BibTeX Entries
```bibtex
@article{...}
Save to `output/log/lit_review_[topic].md`.
---
## Principles
- **Be honest about uncertainty.** If a citation cannot be verified, mark as `% UNVERIFIED`.
- **Prioritize published work** over working papers. Note publication status.
- **Do NOT fabricate citations.** Flag any uncertain details.
- **Identification strategy is key.** Always note how each paper identifies effects.
- **Effect sizes matter.** Report magnitudes, not just signs.
- **Project relevance.** Score proximity specifically to the sewage-house-prices question.
1---2name: lit-review-23description: Structured literature search and synthesis for the sewage-house-prices project. Searches top-5 journals, field journals (JEEM, JUE, JREFE, EE), NBER/SSRN, and citation chains. Produces annotated bibliography with proximity scores, gap identification, and BibTeX entries. This skill should be used when asked to "review the literature", "find papers on X", or "lit review".4---5
6# Literature Review
7
8Conduct a structured literature search and synthesis for the sewage-house-prices project.
9
10**Input:** `$ARGUMENTS` — a topic, paper title, research question, or phenomenon.
11
12---
13
14## Project-Specific Context
15
16### Core Literature Strands
17
181. **Environmental disamenity capitalisation** — Hedonic pricing of pollution, noise, flood risk on house prices
192. **Water quality and property values** — Clean/dirty water effects on housing markets
203. **UK water industry** — Privatisation, regulation, sewage overflows, EDM monitoring
214. **Hedonic pricing methodology** — Rosen (1974), Palmquist (1982), repeat sales, spatial approaches
225. **Infrastructure and house prices** — Transport, utilities, public goods capitalisation
236. **Rental market effects** — Disamenity capitalisation in rental vs owner-occupied markets
247. **Media and information effects** — How news coverage affects price discovery
25
26### Target Journals (by tier)
27
28**Tier 1 (General):** AER, Econometrica, QJE, JPE, REStud
29**Tier 2 (Field):** JEEM, Journal of Urban Economics, Regional Science and Urban Economics, Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Ecological Economics, Environmental and Resource Economics
30**Tier 3 (Applied/Policy):** JEEA, Journal of Applied Econometrics, Economics Letters, Land Economics, Environment and Planning B
31
32### Existing Bibliography
33- Check `docs/overleaf/refs.bib` for papers already in the project
34- Check `docs/lit_review/` for any literature notes
35
36---
37
38## Workflow
39
40### Step 1: Context Gathering
41
421. Parse the topic from `$ARGUMENTS`
432. Read `docs/overleaf/refs.bib` for papers already in the project
443. Check the manuscript sections in `docs/overleaf/` for existing literature discussion
45
46### Step 2: Search Protocol
47
48Search in this order:
491. Top-5 general interest journals (AER, Econometrica, QJE, JPE, REStud)
502. Field journals (JEEM, JUE, RSUE, JREFE, EE, ERE)
513. NBER/SSRN/IZA working papers
524. Citation chains (forward + backward from key papers found)
535. UK-specific policy sources (Ofwat, Environment Agency, DEFRA)
54
55Use web search to find recent and relevant papers.
56
57### Step 3: Assess and Annotate
58
59For each paper found, assign a proximity score (1-5):
60- **1** = Directly competes (same question, similar data/method)
61- **2** = Closely related (same outcome or same treatment, different context)
62- **3** = Methodologically relevant (same identification strategy, different topic)
63- **4** = Background context (theoretical foundation, institutional detail)
64- **5** = Tangentially related
65
66### Step 4: Identify Gaps
67
68Check for:
69- Missing seminal papers in hedonic pricing or environmental capitalisation
70- Missing recent UK water quality studies
71- Missing methodological context for the identification strategies used
72- Coverage across journal quality tiers
73
74### Step 5: Present Results
75
76```markdown
77# Literature Review: [Topic]
78**Date:** YYYY-MM-DD
79**Query:** [Original query]
80
81## Summary
82[2-3 paragraph overview of the state of the literature]
83
84## Key Papers
85### [Author (Year)] — [Short Title]
86- **Journal:** [venue]
87- **Proximity:** [1-5 score]
88- **Contribution:** [1-2 sentences]
89- **Identification:** [DiD / IV / RDD / hedonic / descriptive]
90- **Key finding:** [result with effect size]
91- **Relevance to sewage project:** [specific connection]
92
93## Thematic Organization
94### Environmental Disamenity Capitalisation
95### Water Quality and Property Values
96### Identification Strategy Literature
97### UK Water Industry Context
98
99## Gaps and Opportunities
1001. [Gap 1 — what's missing and how our paper fills it]
1012. [Gap 2]
102
103## Research Frontier
104### Active Debates
105### Recent Working Papers
106### Emerging Methods
107
108## BibTeX Entries
109```bibtex
110@article{...}
111```
112```
113
114Save to `output/log/lit_review_[topic].md`.
115
116---
117
118## Principles
119
120- **Be honest about uncertainty.** If a citation cannot be verified, mark as `% UNVERIFIED`.
121- **Prioritize published work** over working papers. Note publication status.
122- **Do NOT fabricate citations.** Flag any uncertain details.
123- **Identification strategy is key.** Always note how each paper identifies effects.
124- **Effect sizes matter.** Report magnitudes, not just signs.
125- **Project relevance.** Score proximity specifically to the sewage-house-prices question.
brycewang-stanford