Macro-Impacts of Air Quality on Property Values in China—A Meta-Regression Analysis of the Literature

Abstract

Air pollution has received increasing attention in recent years, particularly in China, due to the rapid industrialisation that has wrought intense levels of air pollution. A number of studies, therefore, have been devoted to quantifying the impacts of air pollution on property value in China. However, the empirical results are somewhat mixed. This naturally raises questions of whether there is a significant relationship between air quality and housing prices and the plausible reasons for the mixed results in previous studies. This study aims to fill this gap by explaining the variations in the findings by a meta-regression analysis. To control for heterogeneity, a weighted least square model was used to explore the factors influencing the magnitude and significance of the air quality effect based on empirical estimates from 117 observations. This study confirms that air quality does have a discernible impact on housing prices beyond the publication bias. Besides, the types of air quality indicator and the air data source do significantly influence estimates through affecting both the magnitude of the elasticity and the partial correlation coefficient (PCC). Further, the selections of control variables and estimation approaches also have significant impacts on estimates. This study also finds that published papers tend to be biased towards more economically significant estimates. The implications of the findings have also been discussed.

New Trends in Sustainable Environmental Governance in Mainland China. The Zhejiang Case.

“…Although the establishment of foreign environmental NGOs together with civil society participation and MNCs growing accountability, our findings fall short in evidencing broader activism in Zhejiang environmental movement, or in China at a large, and this trend is evident in two major protests in Zhejiang, the 2012 “anti-PX” protest in Ningbo (mentioned by two interviewees), or the May 2014 Yuhang protest, where thousands of people gathered in a protest against a planned waste incinerator in a suburb 10 km north-east of Hangzhou (BBC, 2014). These two protests show that mobilization among Chinese civil society happens mostly when community interest is at stake and economic factors like falling property price are threatened (J. Wang et al, 2021), therefore lacking a sense of collective participation toward a sustainable environment.…”

“…These two protests show that mobilization among Chinese civil society happens mostly when community interest is at stake and economic factors like falling property price are threatened (J. Wang et al, 2021), therefore lacking a sense of collective participation toward a sustainable environment. In both the Ningbo and the Yuhang protests, the local government stopped the plan while relocating it to rural areas where mobilization is less likely due to a lack of an informed middle class (Chen, 2017).…”

The COVID-19 Sentiment and Office Markets: Evidence from China

“…This also highlights the importance of a dedicated study on office buildings), we will only examine office rent and vacancy rate determinants in this paper. Despite extensive studies of the office sector (An et al [29]; Lee et al [30]; Crosby et al [23]; Khan et al [31]) and housing markets [32,33] internationally, empirical research on Chinese office buildings has been relatively lacking, in part due to its short history as China only adopted its "open door" policy in the late 1970s (Hui et al [34]; Zhang et al [35]). Early research examined Shanghai office rent equilibrium and the related submarkets (Ke & White [36]; White & Ke [37]), and a comparison study was conducted for the Beijing and Shanghai office markets (Ke & White [38]).…”

The Association between Perceived Housing Environment and Health and Satisfaction among the Older Adults during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Survey in Northern China

“…Long-term exposure to high humidity can not only increase the risk of respiratory diseases such as asthma and rhinitis [19,20], but also create a psychological burden [21]. Fourth, due to the adverse effects of air pollution on public health, residents had a preference for living in housing with better air quality [22,23]. Last, some research has shown that cleanliness is the most important individual variable influencing occupant satisfaction with the overall environment [24].…”