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Air pollution is a major environmental urban issue, particularly in fast-growing cities in developing countries. Reducing air pollution is thus a challenge while evaluating the economic value of air quality is crucial for environmental policies made. However, few studies accurately estimate this value as they neglect the possible endogeneity issues, as well as the dynamic and heterogeneous effects of air pollution. Under the hedonic framework, we therefore assess the economic effect of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) on housing prices in Beijing, China. We construct a panel based on resale apartment transactions matched with average quarterly PM2.5 data between 2013 and 2019. To reduce the risk of an estimation bias, we apply an instrumental variable (IV) approach. Our results show that PM2.5 is negatively associated with housing prices. Households were willing to pay an extra 0.0852% per housing unit price for an average quarterly reduction in PM2.5 of 1 µg/m3. Furthermore, we argue that high-income dwellers tend to pay more for clean air. The negative effects of PM2.5 across regions are significant and different. Compared with that in the basic year 2013, the negative effect increases in the first 3 years and then decreases in the last 3 years. Our findings enhance our comprehension of the economic impact of air quality and make a valuable contribution to the nuanced understanding of willingness to pay for air quality, which is beneficial in assessing and optimizing environmental regulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wet markets, recently thrust into the limelight during the coronavirus pandemic, play a necessary role in daily life in Asia. Yet, the value of wet markets has not ever been sufficiently explored. While an increasing body of work has studied the implicit value of urban public amenities through the hedonic price model and traditional measurements of accessibility and density, the subjective perceptions of amenities have been neglected, specifically for consumption amenity. This is especially the case with wet markets: traditional approaches are unable to capture their comprehensive effects. By employing data on Beijing housing transactions in 2019 and online review scores of wet markets, we reduce this knowledge gap by exploring both the amenity and dis-amenity effects of wet markets and capturing the objective and subjective perspectives. Our results indicate a nonlinear relationship between wet market accessibility and urban housing prices. Considering the perceived quality of wet markets, this paper further indicates that housing prices near high-scoring wet markets appreciate while housing prices depreciate near low-scoring markets. Interestingly, the negative influence of low-scoring markets is statistically larger than the positive influence of high-scoring wet markets. Taking the housing price as a reflection of an owner's wealth and income level, we argue that high-income dwellers tend to pay more for perceived quality than for convenience. Our findings, therefore, offer new and refined insights for scholars and urban planning decision-makers. • The effect of wet markets for residents is explored through the lens of urban housing prices. • The physical accessibility and the big data of online customer reviews are employed to capture the objective and subjective perceptions of wet markets. • Both amenity and dis-amenity effects of wet market are detected. • A nonlinear relationship between wet market accessibility and urban housing prices is indicated. • High-income dwellers tend to pay more for subjective perception than for convenience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]