Preferences over Prosperity and Pollution: Environmental Valuation based on Happiness Surveys

Welsch, Heinz

doi:10.1111/1467-6435.00198

“…The factors identified by our model as affecting individuals' SWB are comparable with previous literature: warmer climatic conditions, across all the specifications, and air quality, in the baseline specification, have a positive and statistically significant effect of well-being as in Frijters and van Praag (1998), Redhanz and Maddison (2005), Welsch (2002 and2006) and Luechinger (2009). Their associated monetary estimates, however, seem too large.…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 82%

“…The relationship between public goods and SWB can be implicitly deduced without respondents being aware that their responses will be used to that end (Frey et al, 2004;Welsch, 2002Welsch, , 2006.…”

Section: Life Satisfaction and Hedonic Pricing Approaches: An Overviementioning

confidence: 99%

On the Use of Subjective Well-Being Data for Environmental Valuation

Ferreira

¹

,

Moro

²

2010

Environ Resource Econ

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This paper explores the potential of using subjective well-being (SWB) data to value environmental attributes. A theoretical framework compares this method, also known as the lifesatisfaction approach, with the standard hedonic pricing approach, identifying their similarities and differences. As a corollary, we show how SWB data can be used to test for the equilibrium condition implicit in the hedonic approach (i.e., equality of utility across locations). Results for Ireland show that the equilibrium condition required by the hedonic pricing approach in Irish markets does not hold. They also show that air quality, in the baseline specification, and warmer climate, across all the specifications, have a significant positive impact on SWB. Their associated monetary estimates, however, seem too large.

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“…5 As the life satisfaction approach has already been applied to valuing other environmental externalities monetarily, including air pollution (see, for example, Welsch (2002Welsch ( , 2006Welsch ( , 2007, Rehdanz and Maddison (2008), Ambrey and Fleming (2011), Menz (2011), Ferreira et al (2013), Kopmann and Rehdanz (2013), or Ambrey et al (2014)) or noise pollution (see, for example, van Praag and Baarsma (2005) or Rehdanz and Maddison (2008)), we contribute to a steadily growing stream of literature.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sowing the Wind and Reaping the Whirlwind? The Effect of Wind Turbines on Residential Well-Being

Krekel

¹

,

Zerrahn

²

2015

SSRN Journal

1

0

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Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. This series presents research findings based either directly on data from the German SocioEconomic Panel study (SOEP) or using SOEP data as part of an internationally comparable data set (e.g. CNEF, ECHP, LIS, LWS, CHER/PACO). SOEP is a truly multidisciplinary household panel study covering a wide range of social and behavioral sciences: economics, sociology, psychology, survey methodology, econometrics and applied statistics, educational science, political science, public health, behavioral genetics, demography, geography, and sport science. Terms of use: Documents inThe decision to publish a submission in SOEPpapers is made by a board of editors chosen by the DIW Berlin to represent the wide range of disciplines covered by SOEP. There is no external referee process and papers are either accepted or rejected without revision. Papers appear in this series as works in progress and may also appear elsewhere. They often represent preliminary studies and are circulated to encourage discussion. Citation of such a paper should account for its provisional character. A revised version may be requested from the author directly.Any opinions expressed in this series are those of the author(s) and not those of DIW Berlin.Research disseminated by DIW Berlin may include views on public policy issues, but the institute itself takes no institutional policy positions. AbstractWe investigate the effect of the physical presence of wind turbines on residential wellbeing in Germany, using panel data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) and a unique novel panel data set on more than 20,000 wind turbines for the time period between 2000 and 2012. Using a Geographical Information System (GIS), we calculate the proximity between households and the nearest wind turbine as the most important determinant of their disamenities, e.g. visual interference into landscape aesthetics.Our unique novel panel data set on wind turbines, which was collected at the regional level, includes their exact geographical coordinates and construction dates. This allows estimating the causal effect of the physical presence of wind turbines on residential wellbeing, using a difference-in-differences design. To ensure comparability of the treatment and control group, we apply propensity-score and novel spatial matching techniques based on exogenous weather data and geographical locations of residence, respectively.We show that the construction of a wind turbine within a treatment radius of 4,000 m...

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“…The SWB approach has previously been applied to environmental issues (e.g. Welsch 2002Welsch , 2006Rehdanz and Madison 2005;van Praag and Barsma 2005;Luechinger 2009;Ferreira and Moro 2010;Levinson 2012) and to various societal phenomena, including inflation and unemployment (Di Tella et al 2001), crime (Powdthavee 2005), civil conflict (Welsch 2008a), corruption (Welsch 2008b) and terrorism (Frey et al 2009). Since SWB regressions typically include people's income, calculating the utility-constant trade-off between income and the non-market good in question provides a tool for non-market valuation (see Welsch and Kühling 2009 for a review and discussion).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Electricity supply preferences in Europe: Evidence from subjective well-being data

Welsch

¹

,

Biermann

²

2014

Resource and Energy Economics

Self Cite

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Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. , 2002-2011, to estimate the relationship between subjective well-being (SWB) and production shares of various types of electricity generation. The estimated relationships are taken to represent preference relationships over attributes of electricity supply systems (costs, safety, environmental friendliness etc.). Controlling for a variety of individual and macro-level factors, we find that individuals' SWB varies systematically and significantly with differences in the electricity mix across countries and across time. Among other results, we find that a greater share of solar and wind power relative to nuclear power is associated with greater SWB and that the implied preference for solar and wind power over nuclear power has risen drastically after the Fukushima nuclear accident. In general, our results suggest that environmental and safety concerns are of major importance in European citizens' preference function over electricity supply structures. Terms of use: Documents in

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Preferences over Prosperity and Pollution: Environmental Valuation based on Happiness Surveys

Cited by 258 publications

References 13 publications

On the Use of Subjective Well-Being Data for Environmental Valuation

On the Use of Subjective Well-Being Data for Environmental Valuation

Sowing the Wind and Reaping the Whirlwind? The Effect of Wind Turbines on Residential Well-Being

Electricity supply preferences in Europe: Evidence from subjective well-being data

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