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/lp/university-of-chicago-press/the-missing-benefits-of-clean-water-and-the-role-of-mismeasured-HdAlXTXv4l
- Publisher
- University of Chicago Press
- Copyright
- © 2019 by The Association of Environmental and Resource Economists. All rights reserved.
- ISSN
- 2333-5955
- eISSN
- 2333-5963
- DOI
- 10.1086/703254
- Publisher site
- See Article on Publisher Site
Abstract
Although the United States spends billions of dollars a year controlling water pollution, there is little empirical evidence of comparable benefits. This study argues that measurement error in pollution data causes benefits to be underestimated. Using upstream concentrations as instrumental variables for local concentrations, the study finds substantial benefits from reducing nutrient pollution. Instrumental variable estimates of the effects of phosphorus on recreational use are an order of magnitude larger than conventional estimates. The study uses a long-term pollution data set from Iowa to show that this difference is consistent with estimates of measurement error in several US water pollution data sets.
Journal
Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists – University of Chicago Press
Published: Jul 1, 2019