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Do Housing Prices Reflect Environmental Health Risks? Evidence From More Than 1600 Toxic Plant Openings And Closings

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  • Janet Currie
  • Lucas Davis
  • Michael Greenstone
  • Reed Walker

Abstract

A ubiquitous and largely unquestioned assumption in studies of housing markets is that there is perfect information about local amenities. This paper measures the housing market and health impacts of 1,600 openings and closings of industrial plants that emit toxic pollutants. We find that housing values within one mile decrease by 1.5 percent when plants open, and increase by 1.5 percent when plants close. This implies an aggregate loss in housing values per plant of about $1.5 million. While the housing value impacts are concentrated within � mile, we find statistically significant infant health impacts up to one mile away.

Suggested Citation

  • Janet Currie & Lucas Davis & Michael Greenstone & Reed Walker, 2013. "Do Housing Prices Reflect Environmental Health Risks? Evidence From More Than 1600 Toxic Plant Openings And Closings," Working Papers 13-14, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    • Handle: RePEc:cen:wpaper:13-14
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    8. Hill, Elaine L., 2018. "Shale gas development and infant health: Evidence from Pennsylvania," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 134-150.
    9. KAWAGUCHI, Daiji & 川口, 大司 & YUKUTAKE, Norifumi & 行武, 憲史, 2014. "Estimating the Residential Land Damage of the Fukushima Accident," Discussion Papers 2014-18, Graduate School of Economics, Hitotsubashi University.
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    12. Ziebarth, N. R. & Schmitt, M. & Karlsson, M., 2013. "The short-term population health effects of weather and pollution: implications of climate change," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 13/34, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
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    15. Kanis Saengchote & Voraprapa Nakavachara & Yishuang Xu, 2023. "Capitalising the Network Externalities of New Land Supply in the Metaverse," Papers 2303.17180, arXiv.org.
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    20. Zhu, Hongjia & Deng, Yongheng & Zhu, Rong & He, Xiaobo, 2016. "Fear of nuclear power? Evidence from Fukushima nuclear accident and land markets in China," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 139-154.
    21. James K. Boyce & Klara Zwickl & Michael Ash, 2014. "Three Measures of Environmental Inequality," Working Papers Series 12, Institute for New Economic Thinking.
    22. Walsh, Patrick & Mui, Preston, 2017. "Contaminated sites and information in hedonic models: An analysis of a NJ property disclosure law," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 1-14.
    23. Nicholas Apergis, 2020. "Natural Disasters and Housing Prices: Fresh Evidence from a Global Country Sample," International Real Estate Review, Global Social Science Institute, vol. 23(2), pages 815-836.

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    JEL classification:

    • D62 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Externalities
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • Q51 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Valuation of Environmental Effects
    • Q53 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Air Pollution; Water Pollution; Noise; Hazardous Waste; Solid Waste; Recycling

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