Particulate air pollution and real estate valuation: Evidence from 286 Chinese prefecture-level cities over 2004-2013

Whether, and to what extent the air pollutions depress the real estate prices in China have increasingly become to be important issues yet to be well addressed. By applying a very unique panel data set on PM2.5 concentrations from 286 Chinese prefecture-level cities for 2004-2013, this study quantitatively assesses the impact of PM2.5 concentrations on real estate prices in China. The preferred empirical results demonstrate that: (1) PM2,5 pollutions have negatively significant effects on real estate prices in China. Specifically, 1 mu g/m(3) increase in PM2,5 concentrations is associated with a decrease of 46 RMB/m(2) in real estate prices on average. (2) The estimated effects differ widely across Chinese cities, with higher-ranking cities being more substantially impacted. Additionally, the negative effects become increasingly statistically significant and quantitatively large over time. (3) Finally, 1 mu g/m(3) increase in PM(2.)5 is responsible for about 5200 hundred million RMB losses in real estate valuations, approximately accounting for 0.9% GDP in 2013 of China. The findings are rather robust to various alternative settings. This article is part of a Virtual Special Issue entitled 'Comparing Sustainable Energy Policies in Northeast Asia: toward the harmonized Public -Private Partnership'.