The art of not being chocked: Environmental awareness, residents' responses and land transactions in China
Abstract
This paper investigates the impact of environmental awareness on land transactions. We leverage the exogenous shock caused by the unexpected release of the environmental documentary Under the Dome in early 2015 in China, and use the birthplace of the interviewees in filmmaker's previous signature program as the instrument for exposure. We observe that the cities with more exposure to the documentary exhibit significant reduction in land transaction activities. Mechanism analysis indicates that after the release of documentary, residents awareness of air pollution increases substantially, accompanied by a notable rise in migration intention. This indicates the real impacts of environmental perception on household behavior and land transactions.