IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp17942.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Value of a Park in Crises: Quantifying the Health and Wellbeing Benefits of Green Spaces Using Exogenous Variations in Use Values

Author

Listed:
  • Krekel, Christian

    (London School of Economics)

  • Goebel, Jan

    (DIW Berlin)

  • Rehdanz, Katrin

    (Kiel University)

Abstract

Most people consider parks important for their quality of life, yet systematic causal evidence is missing. We exploit exogenous variations in their use values to estimate causal effects. Using a representative household panel with precise geographical coordinates of households linked to satellite images of green spaces with a nationwide coverage, we employ a spatial difference-in-differences design, comparing within-individual changes between residents living close to a green space and those living further away. We exploit Covid-19 as exogenous shock. We find that green spaces raised overall life satisfaction while reducing symptoms of anxiety (feelings of nervousness and worry) and depression. There is also suggestive evidence for reduced loneliness. Given the number of people in their surroundings, a compensating-surplus calculation suggests that parks added substantial benefits during the period studied.

Suggested Citation

  • Krekel, Christian & Goebel, Jan & Rehdanz, Katrin, 2025. "The Value of a Park in Crises: Quantifying the Health and Wellbeing Benefits of Green Spaces Using Exogenous Variations in Use Values," IZA Discussion Papers 17942, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17942
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp17942.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    quasi-natural experiment; wellbeing; mental health; green spaces; parks; compensating surplus;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General
    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being
    • R23 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population
    • H41 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Public Goods
    • Q51 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Valuation of Environmental Effects

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17942. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.