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Valuing public goods using happiness data: The case of air quality

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  • Levinson, Arik

Abstract

This paper describes and implements a method for valuing a time-varying local public good: air quality. It models survey respondents' self-reported happiness as a function of their demographic characteristics, incomes, and the air pollution and weather on the date and in the place they were surveyed. People with higher incomes report higher levels of happiness, and people interviewed on days with worse local air pollution report lower levels of happiness. Combining these two concepts, I derive the average marginal rate of substitution between income and current air quality — a compensating differential for short-term changes in air pollution.

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  • Levinson, Arik, 2012. "Valuing public goods using happiness data: The case of air quality," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(9-10), pages 869-880.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:pubeco:v:96:y:2012:i:9:p:869-880
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2012.06.007
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Willingness to pay; Stated well-being; Pollution; Compensating differential;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q51 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Valuation of Environmental Effects
    • Q53 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Air Pollution; Water Pollution; Noise; Hazardous Waste; Solid Waste; Recycling
    • H41 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Public Goods

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