Benefits of diesel emission regulations: Evidence from the World's largest low emission zone
Cheolmin Kang, Mitsuru Ota, Koichi Ushijima
Abstract
We examined the impact of diesel emission regulations on air quality, land prices, and infant health in the Tokyo metropolitan area. The results reveal that as air pollution concentrations improved, land prices increased more in areas with higher diesel vehicle traffic, even after controlling for non-regulated vehicle traffic. In contrast, the concentrations of non-regulated air pollutants were unaffected. Estimates based on the hedonic approach show that the benefit of air quality improvement in the metropolitan area is about 14 times the cost. Improved air quality also improved infant health. The improvement in infant mortality with a one-unit improvement in suspended particulate matter was similar in magnitude to published results from the United States.