Shen Xingchi, Edwards Morgan R, Qiu Yueming Lucy, Liu Pengfei
School of International and Public Affairs, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, China.
La Follette School of Public Affairs, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA.
iScience. 2024 Dec 17;27(12):111483. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2024.111483. eCollection 2024 Dec 20.
This study provides the first empirical evidence of the impact of leaks in natural gas distribution pipelines on nearby home prices. Using high-resolution property transaction data in Massachusetts and a difference-in-differences approach, we find that gas leaks significantly reduce nearby home prices by 2.61% ($11,700) on average. Damage to local greenery likely plays an important role in the negative impact of gas leaks on nearby home prices. The impact is economically and statistically significant for houses with high surrounding tree cover and not significant for houses with low surrounding tree cover. However, we fail to detect a significant difference in the impact before and after an information shock of a deadly natural gas accident. Our estimated benefits of fixing gas leaks are larger than the average costs per repair reported by utilities in Massachusetts, which supports actions by policymakers and environmental organizations to reduce methane emissions from gas distribution pipelines.
本研究首次提供了天然气配送管道泄漏对附近房屋价格影响的实证证据。利用马萨诸塞州的高分辨率房产交易数据和差分法，我们发现天然气泄漏使附近房屋价格平均显著降低了2.61%（11,700美元）。当地植被受损可能在天然气泄漏对附近房屋价格的负面影响中起重要作用。对于周边树木覆盖率高的房屋，这种影响在经济和统计上是显著的，而对于周边树木覆盖率低的房屋则不显著。然而，在致命天然气事故的信息冲击前后，我们未能检测到影响上的显著差异。我们估计修复天然气泄漏的收益大于马萨诸塞州公用事业公司报告的每次维修平均成本，这支持了政策制定者和环境组织采取行动减少天然气配送管道的甲烷排放。
