Abstract
Sunlight influences people's housing decisions, but city intensification may reduce sunlight exposure for neighboring properties, causing a negative externality. There are hitherto no rigorous estimates of the cost of this externality. Using over 5000 observations on house sales in Wellington, New Zealand, we derive the willingness to pay for an extra daily hour of sunlight, on average, across the year. After controlling for locational sorting and other considerations in an hedonic regression, we find that each extra daily hour of sunlight exposure is associated with a 2.6% increase in house sale price. This estimate is robust to a variety of alternative specifications in which we test for non-linearities and amplifying factors by interacting sunlight with a range of other influences. Our results can be used to price negative externalities caused by new development, so replacing or augmenting regulations designed to address impacts of development on neighbors’ sunshine.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.