 Air pollution and the housing market: Evidence from Germany’s Low Emission ZonesHenri Gruhl, Nicolas Volkhausen, Nico Pestel and Nils aus dem Moore Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 2025, vol. 132, issue C Abstract: This paper studies whether air quality improvements from driving restrictions are valued in the housing market, using comprehensive data on real estate prices in Germany. For identification, we exploit the staggered introduction of Low Emission Zones (LEZs) across German cities, restricting inner-city access for emission-intensive vehicles. We find that air quality improvements are reflected by roughly 2 percent higher apartment rents. The results are primarily driven by earlier LEZ implementations in areas with relatively higher pre-intervention pollution levels and in areas less dependent on cars. Our findings have important implications for planned changes to the emission intensity of the vehicle fleet, underscoring the potential implications of transitioning to cleaner transportation systems. Keywords: Low emission zone; Policy evaluation; House prices; Externalities (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jeeman:v:132:y:2025:i:c:s0095069625000452 DOI: 10.1016/j.jeem.2025.103161 Access Statistics for this article Journal of Environmental Economics and Management is currently edited by M.A. Cole, A. Lange, D.J. Phaneuf, D. Popp, M.J. Roberts, M.D. Smith, C. Timmins, Q. Weninger and A.J. Yates More articles in Journal of Environmental Economics and Management from Elsevier |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.