Does Clean Air Increase the Demand for the Consumer City? Evidence From Beijing

Posted: 8 Nov 2019

See all articles by Cong Sun

Cong Sun

Shanghai University of Finance and Economics

Siqi Zheng

Samuel Talk Lee Professor of Urban and Real Estate Sustainability, Faculty Director of MIT Center for Real Estate

Matthew E. Kahn

University of Southern California; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Jianghao Wang

Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) - Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research (IGSNRR)

Date Written: October 29, 2019

Abstract

Cities offer a large menu of possible employment and leisure opportunities. The gains from such consumer city leisure are likely to be lower on more polluted days. We study the association between daily consumption activity and outdoor air pollution in China and find evidence in favor of the hypothesis that clean air and leaving one's home for leisure trips are complements. Given the high levels of air pollution in cities in the developing world, regulation induced improvement in environmental quality is likely to further stimulate demand for the consumer city.

Suggested Citation

Sun, Cong and Zheng, Siqi and Kahn, Matthew E. and Wang, Jianghao, Does Clean Air Increase the Demand for the Consumer City? Evidence From Beijing (October 29, 2019). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3477356

Cong Sun

Shanghai University of Finance and Economics ( email )

777 Guoding Road
Shanghai, AK Shanghai 200433
China

Siqi Zheng (Contact Author)

Samuel Talk Lee Professor of Urban and Real Estate Sustainability, Faculty Director of MIT Center for Real Estate ( email )

Building 9-323
Cambridge, MA 02139
United States

HOME PAGE: http://https://siqizheng.mit.edu/

Matthew E. Kahn

University of Southern California ( email )

2250 Alcazar Street
Los Angeles, CA 90089
United States

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) ( email )

1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

Jianghao Wang

Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) - Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research (IGSNRR) ( email )

Beijing
China

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Abstract Views
301
PlumX Metrics