Noise pollution and housing markets: A spatial hedonic analysis for La Plata City

Several cities around the world are affected by high levels of noise pollution. In fact, noise pollution is one of the main problems affecting the quality of life in cities. In this sense, noise, understood as an environmental stressor, can cause significant health problems, including sleep and learning disorders, memory troubles, lack of motivation and increase in irritability and aggressiveness. This work analyzes the value that individuals place on living in quieter areas. Using hedonic price models, we obtained an accurate assessment of the marginal willingness to pay of individuals to reduce noise pollution. The main result highlight the relevance of this topic: a buyer is willing to pay around 1.9% less for each decibel of noise around the house. Such result is especially relevant in the design of noise mitigation policies, as it determines whether the benefits of the policies designed to reduce noise pollution exceed their implementation costs.