DP13811 Ease vs. noise: Long-run changes in the value of transport (dis)amenities
Author(s): | Gabriel Ahlfeldt, Volker Nitsch, Nicolai Wendland |
Publication Date: | June 2019 |
Keyword(s): | accessibility, Difference-in-Differences, income elasticity, land price, noise, Spatial differencing |
JEL(s): | N73, N74, R12, R14, R41 |
Programme Areas: | International Trade and Regional Economics, Economic History |
Link to this Page: | cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=13811 |
For a complete cost-benefit analysis of durable infrastructures, it is important to understand how the value of non-market goods such as transit time and environmental quality changes as incomes rise in the long-run. We use difference-in-differences and spatial differencing to estimate the land price capitalization effects of metro rail in Berlin, Germany today and a century ago. Over this period, the negative effect of rail noise tripled in percentage terms. Our results imply long-run income elasticities of the value of noise reduction and transport access of 2.2 and 1.4, substantially exceeding cross-sectional contingent valuation estimates.