An Environmental Justice Assessment of the Waste Treatment Facilities in Shanghai: Incorporating Counterfactual Decomposition into the Hedonic Price Model

Can Zou, Jun Tai, Li Chen and Yue Che
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Can Zou: School of Ecological and Environmental Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China
Jun Tai: Shanghai Environmental Engineering Design Research Institute, Shanghai 200232, China
Li Chen: School of Ecological and Environmental Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China
Yue Che: School of Ecological and Environmental Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 8, 1-12

Abstract: Environmental justice (EJ) has become an increasingly significant issue for environmental management and has thus attracted increasing government and public attention. Although some studies have used techniques of proximity based on geographical information systems to assess EJ, their research is limited to individual or household data. Unlike the conventional hedonic price model (HPM) examining the effects of environmental features on housing rent, this article incorporates counterfactual decomposition into the HPM to estimate the environmental pressure on different groups by comparing the externality effects of municipal solid waste treatment facilities (MSWTFs) on two separate groups of people. To explore whether and, if so, the extent to which, vulnerable groups of people are restricted to disproportionate impacts of hazardous environmental facilities, this research uses Shanghai as the study area to highlight specific locations and exemplify the environmental injustice between the rich and the poor. The results, which represent the relationship between environmental quality and property prices, indicate that environmental quality is a robust predictor of housing rent. Simultaneously, the results suggest that some people conform better to environmental pressure than do others. Thus, the environmental impact of MSWTFs on different populations should be considered, and compensation policies should be implemented for disadvantaged groups.

Keywords: environmental justice; hedonic price model; municipal solid waste treatment facilities; Shanghai (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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