Are the Rich Willing to Pay More for Beautiful Cities? Income Effects on the Willingness to Pay for Aesthetic Improvements (Report‪)‬

1. INTRODUCTION Signs, billboards, and other forms of outdoor advertising are now ubiquitous in most urban centres across the country. Traffic safety and public health issues have been raised by some policymakers but one particular issue often overlooked is the effect of unrestrained outdoor advertising on the urban environment and roadside aesthetics. The uncontrolled proliferation of billboards and signage creates visual clutter and contributes to urban blight. When outdoor advertising is improperly placed, made too large and too many, it can infringe on natural, scenic, historic, and aesthetic values of the urban landscape (Pennsylvania Resources Council, 2003). Many towns and cities in developed countries have adopted local measures to mitigate such "visual pollution". However, this has not been the case in most developing countries, where worrying about visual clutter and adopting programs aimed at enhancing the urban landscape in general is often deemed too costly and uneconomical. Although on a priori grounds there is no reason to believe that environmental quality is a luxury good, many have argued that concern for the environment is essentially a pursuit of the privileged (Kristom and Riera, 1996).