TY - JOUR
T1 - Using a choice experiment to measure the environmental costs of air pollution impacts in Seoul
AU - Yoo, Seung Hoon
AU - Kwak, Seung Jun
AU - Lee, Joo Suk
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Korea Research Foundation Grant funded by the Korean Government (MOEHRD) (KRF-2002-041-B00122). The authors like to thank the three anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and constructive suggestions. It is acknowledged that any errors in this paper are the authors’ sole responsibility.
PY - 2008/1
Y1 - 2008/1
N2 - Air pollution, a by-product of economic growth, has been incurring extensive environmental costs in Seoul, Korea. Unfortunately, air pollution impacts are not treated as a commercial item, and thus it is difficult to measure the environmental costs arising from air pollution. There is an imminent need to find a way to measure air pollution impacts so that appropriate actions can be taken to control air pollution. Therefore, this study attempts to apply a choice experiment to quantifying the environmental costs of four air pollution impacts (mortality, morbidity, soiling damage, and poor visibility), using a specific case study of Seoul. We consider the trade-offs between price and attributes of air pollution impacts for selecting a preferred alternative and derive the marginal willingness to pay (WTP) estimate for each attribute. According to the results, the households' monthly WTP for a 10% reduction in the concentrations of major pollutants in Seoul was found to be approximately 5494 Korean won (USD 4.6) and the total annual WTP for the entire population of Seoul was about 203.4 billion Korean won (USD 169.5 million). This study is expected to provide policy-makers with useful information for evaluating and planning environmental policies relating specifically to air pollution.
AB - Air pollution, a by-product of economic growth, has been incurring extensive environmental costs in Seoul, Korea. Unfortunately, air pollution impacts are not treated as a commercial item, and thus it is difficult to measure the environmental costs arising from air pollution. There is an imminent need to find a way to measure air pollution impacts so that appropriate actions can be taken to control air pollution. Therefore, this study attempts to apply a choice experiment to quantifying the environmental costs of four air pollution impacts (mortality, morbidity, soiling damage, and poor visibility), using a specific case study of Seoul. We consider the trade-offs between price and attributes of air pollution impacts for selecting a preferred alternative and derive the marginal willingness to pay (WTP) estimate for each attribute. According to the results, the households' monthly WTP for a 10% reduction in the concentrations of major pollutants in Seoul was found to be approximately 5494 Korean won (USD 4.6) and the total annual WTP for the entire population of Seoul was about 203.4 billion Korean won (USD 169.5 million). This study is expected to provide policy-makers with useful information for evaluating and planning environmental policies relating specifically to air pollution.
KW - Air pollution
KW - Choice experiment
KW - Environmental cost
KW - Multinomial logit model
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=35648940388&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jenvman.2006.12.008
DO - 10.1016/j.jenvman.2006.12.008
M3 - Article
C2 - 17349731
AN - SCOPUS:35648940388
SN - 0301-4797
VL - 86
SP - 308
EP - 318
JO - Journal of Environmental Management
JF - Journal of Environmental Management
IS - 1
ER -
