ESTIMATING THE VALUE OF HIGHWAY NOISE BARRIERS USING A DIFFERENCE IN DIFFERENCE APPROACH.

Abstract

Noise pollution is a growing problem that has a significant negative impact on people’s health. This study aims to empirically estimate the value highway noise barriers bring to residential property owners in Singapore, which is reflected in property prices. Using the Land Transport Authority’s (LTA) trial of noise barriers along 4 stretches of highways as a quasi-experiment, the difference-in-differences (DID) approach is used to study the difference in the change in residential property prices before and after the announcement of the trial, between properties affected by the trial and properties that are unaffected by it. This paper finds a significant increase in housing prices of between 4.5% to 12.4% among properties within 400m of the noise barriers at 2 out of the 4 trial sites, suggesting that property owners value the reduction in noise levels brought about by the installation of noise barriers.