Environmental Health Risks and Housing Values: Evidence from 1,600 Toxic Plant Openings and Closings

摘要: Regulatory oversight of toxic emissions from industrial plants and understanding about these emissions’ impacts are in their infancy. Applying a research design based on the openings closings 1,600 to rich data housing markets infant health, we find that: air affect quality only within 1 mile plant; plant lead 11 percent declines values 0.5 or loss $4.25 million for households; plant’s operation is associated with roughly 3 increase probability low birthweight mile. (JEL I12, L60, Q52, Q53, Q58, R23, R31) Industrial that emit pollutants ubiquitous United States today, many lie close proximity major population centers. These nearly 4 billion pounds annually, including 80,000 different chemical compounds. Whereas criteria like particulate matter have been regulated decades, regulation airborne remains its The nascent state controversial because, one hand, most chemicals emitted never undergone any form toxicity testing (US Department Health Human Services 2010) 2 , and, other they widely believed cause cancer, birth defects, damage brain reproductive systems (Centers