Citation:

Guignet, D., Matthew Heberling, M. Papenfus, AND O. Griot. Property values, water quality, and benefit transfer: A nationwide meta-analysis. Land Economics. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, WI, 98(2):191-218, (2022). https://doi.org/10.3368/le.98.2.050120-0062R1

Impact/Purpose:

Our research proposes an approach to assess the benefits of improved water quality using existing, published hedonic property value studies. The hedonic method requires homeowners to be aware of and value changes in water quality such that it will be capitalized in their house prices. We examine the house price effects of water quality changes across different waterbodies and regions of the US. The existence of this meta-dataset and our meta-analysis provide a means for practitioners to conduct benefit transfer, and assess how improvements in water quality from local, regional, and even national policies are capitalized into housing values.

Description:

We construct a comprehensive, publicly-available meta-dataset based on 36 hedonic studies that examine the effects of water quality on housing values in the United States. The meta-dataset includes 656 unique estimates and entails a cluster structure that accounts for price effects at different distances. Focusing on water clarity, we estimate reduced-form meta-regressions that account for within-market dependence, statistical precision, housing market and waterbody heterogeneity, publication bias, and methodological practices. While we find evidence of systematic heterogeneity, the out-of-sample transfer errors are large. We discuss the implications for benefit transfer and future work to improve transfer performance.

URLs/Downloads:

Record Details: