2002 World Congress of Environmental and Resource Economists

Individuals and experts often disagree about the health risks that arise from living near undesirable facilities like hazardous waste sites, incinerators, and nuclear power plants.This discrepancy raises questions such as: What are the policy implications of a situation where the homeowners perceive a higher risk than the expert risk assessors? How does this difference affect the estimates of the benefits of reducing the risks from hazardous waste sites? We answer these questions by comparing the "objective" EPA risk assessments with the "subjective" values of homeowners for two Superfund sites in Woburn Massachusetts. The "subjective" risk estimates are derived from a hedonic house price model using transactions data from 1975-1998. The long time period allows us to analyze the evolution of the "subjective" risk value and hence to determine if there is a convergence or divergence of the two risk measures over time.



	Paper Title:	"Objective" Versus "Subjective" Environmental Risks: The Case Of Superfund Sites In Woburn, Massachusetts
	Presenting Author:	Ted Gayer (Tufts University)
	Coauthor 1:	Jeffrey Zabel
	Coauthor 2:
	Coauthor 3:
	Abstract:	Individuals and experts often disagree about the health risks that arise from living near undesirable facilities like hazardous waste sites, incinerators, and nuclear power plants.This discrepancy raises questions such as: What are the policy implications of a situation where the homeowners perceive a higher risk than the expert risk assessors? How does this difference affect the estimates of the benefits of reducing the risks from hazardous waste sites? We answer these questions by comparing the "objective" EPA risk assessments with the "subjective" values of homeowners for two Superfund sites in Woburn Massachusetts. The "subjective" risk estimates are derived from a hedonic house price model using transactions data from 1975-1998. The long time period allows us to analyze the evolution of the "subjective" risk value and hence to determine if there is a convergence or divergence of the two risk measures over time.
	Link to paper:	Not available

	Session / Day / Time	2B / Monday / 10:15 - 11:45 am

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