This volume includes the empirical results obtained from two experiments to measure the health and aesthetic benefits of air pollution control. Each experiment involved the same six neighborhood pairs, where the pairings were made on the basis of similarities in housing characteristics, socio-economic factors, distances to beaches and services, average temperatures, and subjective indicators of housing quality. Data on actual market transactions, as registered in single-family residential property transactions, and on stated preferences for air quality, as revealed in neighborhood surveys, were collected. Given various assumptions on income, location, aggregation by areas, specific housing characteristics, and knowledge of the health effects of air pollution, both the survey and the property value experiments yielded estimates of willingness to pay for an improvement from 'poor' to 'fair' air quality of from $20 to $150 per month per household. The results, therefore, indicate that air quality deterioration in the Los Angeles area has had substantial negative effects on housing prices and that these effects are comparable in magnitude to what people say they are willing to pay for improved air quality.

Cover title. "February 1979." "EPA-600/5-79-001b." Interim final. Microfilm. Sponsored by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development, Office of Health and Ecological Effects.