Cleaning up contaminated sites is currently considered one of the most important environmental po... more Cleaning up contaminated sites is currently considered one of the most important environmental policy priorities in many countries. Remediation of contaminated sites is attractive because it reduces risks to human health and ecological systems, and brings a host of potential social and economic benefits, since contaminated areas are often found in urban areas where the majority of Europe's population resides. Yet, cleaning up is a costly and time consuming effort, with the taxpayers shouldering much of the financial burden, and its benefits are incurred primarily in the future. In this paper we offer the preliminary results of a survey conducted in 2005 in Italy, where we query people about their awareness of the problems related to contaminated sites-including their perceptions are about the health risks associated with contaminated site exposures-and elicit an assessment of public's preferences regarding various policies currently being considered in Italy and the European Union.
International Journal of Environmental Technology and Management, 2009
Cleaning up contaminated sites is currently considered one of the most important environmental po... more Cleaning up contaminated sites is currently considered one of the most important environmental policy priorities in many countries. Remediation of contaminated sites is attractive because it reduces risks to human health and ecological systems, and brings a host of potential social and economic benefits. Public programmes are deemed necessary by the law and in practice to address contamination at orphan site and to speed up the general processes of cleanups in most countries. People's opinion regarding these programmes in general and the priorities to be addressed is useful and pertinent given the large amount of resources to be devoted to the goal of remediation. In this work, we present the result of a national survey of the Italian public.
The Vsl For Children And Adults: Evidence From Conjoint Choice Experiments In Milan, Italy
Brownfields Remediation and Reuse: An Opportunity for Urban Sustainable Development
Springer eBooks, 2008
Abstract. This paper focuses on brownfields remediation and reuse strategies as opportunities to ... more Abstract. This paper focuses on brownfields remediation and reuse strategies as opportunities to favour environmental protection, improvement of economic and social conditions and enhancement of human health and safety. The reuse of brownfield sites can also promote and encourage urban sustainable development practices. Land management and soil protection are common priorities for all the modern Governments and the experience achieved by Western countries in this field may be of some utility for a ...
We use conjoint choice questions to investigate people's tastes for cancer risk reductions and in... more We use conjoint choice questions to investigate people's tastes for cancer risk reductions and income in the context of public programs that would provide for remediation at abandoned industrial contaminated sites. Our survey was self-administered using the computer by persons living in the vicinity of an important contaminated site on the Italian National Priority List. The value of a prevented case of cancer is €2.6 million, but this figure does vary with income, perceived exposure to contaminants, and opinions about priorities that should be pursued by cleanup programs.
This paper investigates the effect of contamination and remediation on industrial and commercial ... more This paper investigates the effect of contamination and remediation on industrial and commercial real estate property market in the Italian NPL site of Porto Marghera, Venice, using hedonic price method and spatial econometrics to capture the spatial dependence between neighbouring properties. Results show that increasing distance from previously contaminated sites where permanent safety measures have been implemented has a positive effect on prices of nearby properties, suggesting the existence of post-cleanup stigma for this type of action. On the other hand, we find that a complete environmental remediation has a positive and significant effect on property price. The findings suggest that more enduring solutions have a positive effect on real estate properties. We also investigate the effect of the main properties' characteristics, such as size, age, location and economic factors on sale prices and our results support the findings of the main economic literature. Finally, we estimate a spatial lag model demonstrating the existence of spatial autocorrelation in property prices.
We use conjoint choice questions to investigate people's tastes for cancer risk reductions and in... more We use conjoint choice questions to investigate people's tastes for cancer risk reductions and income in the context of public programs that would provide for remediation at abandoned industrial contaminated sites. Our survey was self-administered using the computer by persons living in the vicinity of an important contaminated site on the Italian National Priority List. The value of a prevented case of cancer is €2.6 million, but this figure does vary with income, perceived exposure to contaminants, and opinions about priorities that should be pursued by cleanup programs.
We examine different market-based mechanisms and other incentives intended to promote the environ... more We examine different market-based mechanisms and other incentives intended to promote the environmental remediation and reuse of brownfields. Policies that encourage cleanup and re-use of brownfields offer real estate developers reductions in regulatory burden, relief from liability for future cleanups once certain mitigation standards are met, and/or financial support for regeneration of brownfields. We use conjoint choice experiments-a stated preference approach-to assess the responses of real estate developers to different mixes of these incentives. Our survey instrument was administered in person to a sample of developers and real estate professionals randomly intercepted at the Marché International des Professionnels de l'Immobilier (MIPIM) in Cannes, France, in March 2002. Conditional and random-coefficient logit models of the responses to the choice questions indicate that developers find sites with contamination problems less attractive than others, and that they value liability relief. This confirms our expectation that contaminated sites are less desirable because of the associated cleanup costs, but refutes earlier claims that liability does not matter. Our developers are not deterred by prior contamination, once it has been cleaned up, suggesting that "contamination stigma" is not very important, and appreciate fast-track review of development and remediation plans, direct financial incentives, and flexible (negotiable) cleanup standards. Developers with prior experience with contaminated sites are more responsive to the policies than are inexperienced developers, especially for subsidies. Inexperienced developers are more responsive to liability relief and regulatory relief than they are to subsidies. Similar considerations hold true for larger developers.
Cleaning up contaminated sites is one of the most important environmental policy priorities in ma... more Cleaning up contaminated sites is one of the most important environmental policy priorities in many countries. Remediation of contaminated sites is attractive because it reduces risks to human health and ecological systems, and brings a host of potential social and economic benefits. Even when the burden of paying for cleanup is imposed on the parties that are responsible for the contaminated sites, in many countries government programs are established for enforcement purposes, to set cleanup standards, and to address contamination at those sites where the responsible parties are no longer in existence or do not have the means to pay for cleanup ("orphan" sites). This paper presents the results of a survey of the Italian public where we ask citizens to report their opinions about possible goals for such government programs and for cleanup. Our survey respondents are generally in favor of broad-based programs that protect the health of a diverse population-without restricting attention to cleanup beneficiaries in specific age groups or to specific exposure pathways. They also in favor of permanent remedies, even if they cost more, and of cleaning up sites even when the health risk reduction are experienced in the future, as is usually the case with carcinogenic contaminants.
What is the rate at which people discount future lives saved? The answer to this question has imp... more What is the rate at which people discount future lives saved? The answer to this question has important implications when comparing policies on the grounds of cost per life saved, especially in the context of hazardous waste site remediation, where risk reductions may occur at different times, depending on the permanence of the remedy. We estimate this rate by asking a sample of Italian residents to choose between saving 100 lives now and X lives in T years, where both X and T are varied to the respondents. Assuming constant exponential discounting, the responses to these questions imply a rate of time preference for saving lives of 12%. There is little evidence that this rate is systematically associated with observable individual characteristics of the respondent. There is, however, strong evidence that it declines with the time horizon when the lives would be saved, ranging from 16% for T=10 to less than 4% for T³40. We fit a hyperbolic discount model, finding that it yields a similar value of the discount function for T=10 (the shortest horizon we used in the survey), and that it discounts the future less heavily than the regular exponential discounting model for longer time horizon. We apply our estimated discount functions to two alternate remedial plans for a heavily contaminated area in Italy, and find that-due to the high estimated discount rates-the less permanent solution is found to be more cost-effective.
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Papers by Stefania Tonin