Environmental goods provision and gentrification: Evidence from MillionTreesNYC

Liqing Li

Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 2023, vol. 120, issue C

Abstract: Urban trees offer extensive environmental benefits. However, the distribution of trees in urban areas often disproportionately favors higher-income neighborhoods. Implementing tree-planting programs in lower-income neighborhoods may provide environmental amenity values but may also lead to unintended consequences, such as gentrification. This paper focuses on one of the largest tree-planting programs in the U.S., the MillionTreesNYC Program, and estimates the impact of an increased supply of urban street trees on housing values and neighborhood compositions. The results demonstrate that the additional urban street trees did serve as an environmental amenity, resulting in higher housing values and attracting more white, educated, and young households to areas with new trees. However, the gentrification effects of this tree-planting program were relatively small, with minimal change in community composition. These findings suggest that it is possible to provide public goods without significant displacement of the existing population while also reaping the numerous benefits trees offer to urban areas.

Keywords: Public goods provision; Gentrification; New York City; Trees; Difference-in-difference; Property value; Neighborhood composition (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jeeman:v:120:y:2023:i:c:s0095069623000463

DOI: 10.1016/j.jeem.2023.102828

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