Noise Pollution and Household Sustainability: An Economic Approach

Examining the economic impact of noise pollution from a lens of household is a burgeoning field in the study of environmental sustainability. Economics studies cover the source, measure, consequence of noise pollution, as well as the econometric methods used to identify the causal impact of noise pollution on socioeconomic welfare. There are broadly four major noise origins along with the industrial growth and urban development, which are airport, railway, urban traffic, and neighborhood. Four general kinds of measures or data sources are used in economics studies to capture the noise variations, namely, proximity to noise origins, real-time noise monitor records, household surveys, and administrative records on noise complaints. The socioeconomic consequences of noise pollution span from physical or mental health to happiness, violence and suicide, housing market capitalization, and inequality. In economics studies, generally three types of econometric methods are used to identify causal impact of noise pollution on the household's welfare, which are instrumental variable estimation, difference-in-difference estimation, randomized and quasi-natural experiments. The causal impact of noise pollution on household's socioeconomic welfare derived from economics studies can help guide policy efforts in allocating resources for noise elimination and conduct cost-benefit analysis. The economics research contributes to the general noise research from both conceptual and methodological perspectives: It expands the scope of research from sound-poof technology or site layout planning to human welfare, and endeavors to isolate the causal impact of noise pollution from other confounding factors. Future studies are warranted along the lines of environmental injustice of noise pollution and socioeconomic consequences in less developed countries when the data become more available.