Anmerkungen:
Nach Informationen von SSRN wurde die ursprüngliche Fassung des Dokuments August 1, 2020 erstellt
Beschreibung:
This paper quantifies residents' aversion to sex workers by studying the case of overt prostitution in Amsterdam, where this industry is legalized. To pin down such aversion, we look at housing values and exploit a spatial discontinuity in the location of brothel windows, combined with a policy that changed their location. Using a difference-in-discontinuity estimator, we find that households require 6,000 euros/year to be right next to brothels. Interestingly though, we also present evidence that allowing prostitution increases local employment. This evidence comes from Utrecht, the fourth largest city in the Netherlands, where all brothels were suddenly closed. This ban revealed that households paid up to 1,600 euros/year to be far from brothel areas. Finally, both cities experienced crime reduction, but the explained changes in housing prices are mostly driven by petty crimes. Our findings suggest that households tend to be against the visible presence of sinful businesses, regardless of their socioeconomic benefits