Estimation of monetary values of air pollutant emissions in various US areas

Two general methods of estimating monetary values of air pollutants are presented in this paper. The damage estimate method directly estimated, air pollutant by simulating air quality, identifying health and other welfare impacts damage values and valuing the identified impacts of air pollution, and valuing the identified impacts. Although the method is theoretically sound, many assumptions are involved in each of its estimation steps, and uncertainty exists in each step. The control cost estimate method estimates the marginal emission control cost, which represents the opportunity cost offset by emission reductions from some given control measures. Studies conducted to estimate emission values in US regions used either the damage estimate method or the control cost estimate method. Taking emission values estimated for some US air basins, this paper establishes regression relationships between emission values and total population and air pollutant concentrations. On the basis of the established relationships, both damage-based and control-cost-based emission values are estimated for 17 major US urban areas.