(together with Christian Krekel)
This paper investigates the effects of wind turbines on residential well-being, using panel data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) and a novel data set on wind turbines in Germany for the time period between 2000 and 2012. Using a Geographical Information System (GIS), it calculates the distance to wind turbines, measured as the Euclidean distance between households and the nearest wind turbine, as the most important determinant of their visual pollution. The depth of the novel data set, which has been collected at the regional level and which includes, besides the characteristics of the wind turbines, their construction date, allows to estimate the causal effects of wind turbines on residential well-being, using difference-in-difference propensity-score matching. Preliminary results suggest that the construction of wind turbines in a pre-defined buffer area of 4,000 metres around households has negative effects on the life satisfaction of household members. The results are robust to different buffer areas.