Valuing Air Quality Using Happiness Data: The Case of China

Xin Zhang, Xiaobo Zhang and Xi Chen

No 10028, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This paper estimates the monetary value of cutting PM2.5, a dominant source of air pollution in China. By matching hedonic happiness in a nationally representative survey with daily air quality data according to exact dates and locations of interviews in China, we are able to estimate the relationship between local concentration of particulate matter and individual happiness. By holding happiness constant, we calculate the tradeoff between the reduction in particulate matter and income, essentially a happiness-based measure of willingness-to-pay for mitigating air pollution. We find that people on average are willing to pay ¥539 ($88, or 3.8% of annual household per capita income) for a 1 ?g/m3 reduction in PM2.5 per year per person.

Keywords: willingness to pay; hedonic happiness; air pollution; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I31 Q51 Q53 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 29 pages
Date: 2016-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cna, nep-ene, nep-env, nep-hap and nep-tra
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Published - published in: Ecological Economics, 2017, 137, 29 - 36

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Journal Article: Valuing Air Quality Using Happiness Data: The Case of China (2017)
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