Cool Cities: The Value of Urban Trees

76 Pages Posted: 22 Jan 2024 Last revised: 9 Feb 2025

See all articles by Lu Han

Lu Han

University of Wisconsin at Madison

Stephan Heblich

Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy and Dept. of Economics,

Christopher Timmins

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Yanos Zylberberg

University of Bristol

Date Written: January 2024

Abstract

This paper estimates the value of urban trees and shows their ability to moderate temperatures during heatwaves and reduce energy consumption. The empirical strategy exploits an ecological catastrophe—the Emerald Ash Borer infestation in Toronto—to isolate exogenous variation in neighborhood tree canopy changes and finds that a single tree adds 0.45% to property prices within a postal code; the hardest-hit areas lost 7 percentage points in tree canopy cover, resulting in a 7% property price decline. Trees significantly cool urban areas and save energy, but their total amenity value surpasses the value of these ecosystem services, highlighting their cost-effectiveness in combating urban heat island effects.

Institutional subscribers to the NBER working paper series, and residents of developing countries may download this paper without additional charge at www.nber.org.

Suggested Citation

Han, Lu and Heblich, Stephan and Timmins, Christopher and Zylberberg, Yanos, Cool Cities: The Value of Urban Trees (January 2024). NBER Working Paper No. w32063, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4702277

Lu Han (Contact Author)

University of Wisconsin at Madison ( email )

Stephan Heblich

Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy and Dept. of Economics, ( email )

105 St George Street
Toronto, Ontario M5S 3G8
Canada

Christopher Timmins

University of Wisconsin-Madison ( email )

716 Langdon Street
Madison, WI 53706-1481
United States

Yanos Zylberberg

University of Bristol ( email )

University of Bristol,
Senate House, Tyndall Avenue
Bristol, Avon BS8 ITH
United Kingdom

Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?

Paper statistics

Downloads
11
Abstract Views
383
PlumX Metrics