Sometimes Close Is Good Enough: The Value Of Nearby Environmental Amenities
Abstract
An extensive empirical literature exists, showing that variations in region-specific amenities can account for persistent differences in real wages across regions. However, this literature has considered only amenities in the same location as the household. This paper argues that environmental amenities at some distance from but accessible to urban areas may lead to negative compensating wage differentials. We use a general equilibrium framework and data from the 1995 Current Population Survey to calculate implicit amenity prices based on measures of distance to environmental amenities. Our results suggest that amenities outside the metropolitan area do generate compensating wage differentials, as workers are willing to accept lower wages to live in accessible proximity to "nice" places. This implies that these places provide a positive externality to those communities that find them accessible. The estimated effects are quantitatively important, suggesting that these externalities should be taken into account in policy making. Copyright Blackwell Publishing, Inc. 2006Download Info
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Bibliographic Info
Article provided by Wiley Blackwell in its journal Journal of Regional Science.
Volume (Year): 46 (2006)
Issue (Month): 5 ()
Pages: 931-951
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Related research
Keywords:Other versions of this item:
- Lucie Schmidt & Paul N. Courant, 2003. "Sometimes Close is Good Enough: The Value of Nearby Environmental Amenities," Department of Economics Working Papers 2003-07, Department of Economics, Williams College.
References
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- Courant Paul N. & Deardorff Alan V., 1993. "Amenities, Nontraded Goods, and the Trade of Lumpy Countries," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 299-317, September.
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- Donna Ginther & Madeline Zavodny, 1998.
"Is the male marriage premium due to selection? The effect of shotgun weddings on the return to marriage,"
Working Paper
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Citations
Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.Cited by:
- Elena G. Irwin & Andrew M. Isserman & Maureen Kilkenny & Mark D. Partridge, 2010. "A Century of Research on Rural Development and Regional Issues," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 92(2), pages 522-553.
- Braakmann, Nils, 2009. "Is there a compensating wage differential for high crime levels? First evidence from Europe," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(3), pages 218-231, November.
- repec:ese:iserwp:2011-19 is not listed on IDEAS
- Simonetta Longhi, 2011.
"Impact of Cultural Diversity on Wages and Job Satisfaction in England,"
Norface Discussion Paper Series
2011010, Norface Research Programme on Migration, Department of Economics, University College London.
- Michael Brady & Elena Irwin, 2011. "Accounting for Spatial Effects in Economic Models of Land Use: Recent Developments and Challenges Ahead," Environmental & Resource Economics, European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 48(3), pages 487-509, March.
- Abildtrup, Jens & Garcia, Serge & Olsen, Soren Boye & Stenger, Anne, 2011. "Spatial Preference Heterogeneity in Forest Recreation," 2011 International Congress, August 30-September 2, 2011, Zurich, Switzerland 120386, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
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