Economic valuation of reducing air pollutants for precautionary air conservation policies

ABSTRACT

The lack of air quality data related to consumer behaviour complicates the use of the demand function approach (DFA) to decide whether to implement air pollutant reduction projects. This study examines the applicability of face mask demand and analyses the impact factors responsible for the DFA. The value of the benefits ranged from USD 4.23 (JPY 508) to USD 103.83 (JPY 12,471). The results show that the DFA is applicable when using correspondence tables between air quality and health status.

KEYWORDS:

• Benefit calculation
• air quality
• precautionary principle
• demand function approach
• defensive behaviour

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number JP15K03522. The author would like to thank the officers of the Ministry of the Environment of Japan and the Fukuoka city government for providing important information and air quality data for Fukuoka city. The author also thanks the participants of the 42nd conference of the Committee on Environmental Systems (Japan Society for Civil Engineers) for advice and suggestions on how to improve this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the JSPS KAKENHI [grant number JP15K03522].