MEASURING BENEFITS OF AIR QUALITY IMPROVEMENTS BY DEFENSIVE BEHAVIOR DATA

Abstract

 The purpose of this paper is to estimate air quality and health status improvement benefits by revealed preference data. Subjective quality data was researched and examined the availability for estimating mask demand functions. Poisson regression analysis (PSR), generalized corner solution model (GCS), and household production function approach (HPF) were employed for the estimations. As results, the quality improvement benefits were calculated from 1 yen to 681 yen per year by the PSR; from 6 yen to 4,226 yen per year by the GCS; from 0 yen to 9 yen per year by the HPF. The health status improvement benefits were calculated from 8 yen to 28 yen per year by the HPF; from 335 yen to 3,648 yen per year by the GCS. The results indicated that the subjective quality data was applicable for the PSR, the GCS and the HPF, while the HPF needs to select an adequate dependent variable for benefit calculations.