A hedonic analysis of the impact of LUST sites on house prices

Jeffrey Zabel and Dennis Guignet

Resource and Energy Economics, 2012, vol. 34, issue 4, 549-564

Abstract: Petroleum from leaking underground storage tanks (LUSTs) can contaminate local soil and surface and groundwater. This can pose health risks to the surrounding population. Focusing on single family home sales from 1996 to 2007 in three Maryland Counties, we use a hedonic house price model and a difference–in-difference approach to estimate the willingness to pay to clean up the LUST sites. Particular attention is given to how property values are affected by leak and cleanup activity at a LUST site, the severity of contamination, the presence of a primary exposure pathway (i.e., private groundwater wells), and publicity surrounding a LUST site. The results suggest that although the typical LUST may not significantly affect nearby property values, more publicized (and more severe) sites can decrease surrounding home values by more than 10%.

Keywords: LUST; Hedonic analysis; Groundwater contamination; Remediation benefits (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q51 Q53 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (36)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0928765512000395
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:resene:v:34:y:2012:i:4:p:549-564

DOI: 10.1016/j.reseneeco.2012.05.006

Access Statistics for this article

Resource and Energy Economics is currently edited by J. F. Shogren and S. Smulders

More articles in Resource and Energy Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().