Do people pay for cleaner air? This paper measures the extent to which a reduction in ambient concentrations of suspended particulate matter (SPM) increased residential land prices in metropolitan areas in Japan. I exploit quasi-experimental conditions under Automobile NOx Control Law (ANCL) to induce exogenous changes in SPM, analysing property-level panel dataset for 1992-2015. In this presentation, I show preliminary estimates of marginal willingness to pay for cleaner air, and calculate economic benefits of the ANCL.

Shuhei Nishitateno is an Associate Professor at the Department of International Policy, School of Public Studies, Kwansei Gakuin University. Prior to his current position, he was a Deputy Manager at the Industrial Structure Policy Division, Economic and Industrial Policy Bureau, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (2013-2014). He received his PhD from the Arndt-Corden Department of Economics, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University in 2011. His research interests focus on international economics, transport economics, and the Japanese economy. His research has been published in various academic journals including Economic Inquiry, Energy Economics, Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, and Japanese Economic Review.

A light lunch will be provided.

The AJRC Seminar Series is a forum for researchers to engage on issues relevant to Japan. Topics include, but are not limited to, economics, international relations, politics, and national security. Seminars are typically very frank and early stage studies are most welcome.