Los desastres naturales son descritos a menudo como fenómenos fortuitos, ajenos a nuestra voluntad. Tras el devastador terremoto y tsunami que sacudió Lisboa en 1755 –un episodio que mató a decenas de miles de personas y casi borró del mapa la ciudad– los principales filósofos europeos debatieron sobre su significado. Voltaire culpaba a la naturaleza. Rousseau le dio una réplica famosa: “La naturaleza no construyó veinte mil viviendas de seis o siete plantas [junto a una falla sísmica]”.

May 5, 2026 – 14.30h – Room 1038

March 10, 2026 – 14.30h – Sala de Recepcions

June 17-18, 2026 – Faculty of Economics and Bussiness

December 9, 2025 – 14.30h – Room 1038

This paper studies the causal impact of street noise on housing prices. It focuses on a very dense urban environment and its entire soundscape, using granular data on listed flats and street noise. We employ a combination of hedonic price and fixed effects model, exploiting the regular grid shape of the Eixample district, in Barcelona. Our results indicate that doubling the perceived street noise generates an average depreciation of 3.4% on sales and 2% on rents. We show that the lower semi-elasticity with which the rental market adjusts for the negative externality is associated with a higher turnover of tenants in louder streets. Moreover, we collect several pieces of evidence which suggest that the effect is not driven by sorting by neighbors. Lastly, we use our results to perform two cost-benefit analyses of policies which help reducing noise. Based on our findings, we formulate policy recommendations and highlight specific interventions that can mitigate the negative impact of urban noise.