Rawpixel.com/ShutterstockEvery Bonfire Night, people pay for a box of fireworks so their friends and family can enjoy the colourful display. Within a few minutes, it’s all over. But the price on the box doesn’t reflect the hidden costs. The smoke inhaled by neighbours, the animals disturbed or the public services called out when things go wrong.It’s not a question about whether fireworks celebrations are enjoyable, but whether the people enjoying them are aware of – or actually paying for – their full cost. Economists call this a “negative externality”. A purchase benefits the buyer and seller, but some of its costs fall on people outside that transaction. Fireworks offer a particularly visible example because the enjoyment is concentrated in time while the consequences are spread among households, public services and wildlife. As a finance researcher, I think this concept is overlooked in the fireworks debate. Consider injuries. Figures show that 123 hospital admissions in England attributed to fireworks in 2024–25. That is not a count of everyone injured: cases treated without hospital admission are excluded. Preventing such injuries may not cut the NHS budget, but it can free clinical time for other patients. In an overstretched health service, that is an economic benefit even if it never appears as a saving in the Treasury’s accounts.Pollution creates another unpriced cost. The UK’s official air-quality monitoring has recorded short-lived spikes in fine particles around Bonfire Night, although bonfires also contribute and weather affects how quickly smoke disperses. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs assigns a central estimated damage cost of £114,411 per tonne of fine particulate emissions (known as PM2.5), expressed in 2025 prices to account for inflation. This is not a figure for fireworks: calculating that would require information about their emissions and who is exposed. It does show why a product can have an environmental cost that never appears on its receipt. Read more: Is it possible to have an eco-friendly firework display? Nature belongs on the balance sheetThe damage is not limited to human health. In a peer-reviewed Dutch study, researchers found that approximately 1,000 times as many birds were flying during New Year’s Eve fireworks as on ordinary nights. The disruption extended several miles from the displays. The exact scale cannot be transferred to British Bonfire Nights, but the finding challenges the idea that fireworks affect only those who choose to watch.Birds forced into sudden flight expend energy and lose opportunities to rest. Pets and livestock may also be distressed. Alongside noise and smoke, spent casings and other waste leave a physical footprint. Sustainability means considering these effects, not simply asking how much carbon a celebration emits.Yet putting nature on an economic balance sheet requires care. The value of healthy ecosystems is real, but we should not invent a monetary figure for fireworks-related wildlife damage when credible national estimates are lacking. Some effects can be quantified; others must still inform decisions even without an exact price. The key is to ask which forms of celebration produce the most enjoyment with the least harm. Cavan-Images/Shutterstock The price of fireworksFireworks also create value. They support retailers, display organisers and cultural celebrations, including Bonfire Night, Diwali and New Year. The UK government’s 2026 consultation reports that fireworks imports averaged £27 million a year from 2021 to 2024. That is the value of imports, not total industry sales and certainly not what Britain would save by banning them.If households bought fewer fireworks, they might spend on a local community event, food or another kind of entertainment instead. They might equally save the money. There is no basis for promising that fewer fireworks would automatically increase jobs, GDP or tax receipts.But GDP and wellbeing are not the same thing. Treating avoidable injuries and clearing pollution may involve paid work without making society better off. The relevant comparison is between the enjoyment fireworks provide and the harm, resources and opportunities their use consumes.The practical question is not simply whether to completely ban fireworks and take the joy out of Bonfire Night. It makes more sense to ask which forms of celebration produce the most enjoyment with the least harm. Organised displays, fewer private launches, predictable timings and wildlife-sensitive locations could change that balance. Drone and laser shows might offer alternatives, but they also require electricity and equipment; their sustainability should be assessed, not assumed.This is especially timely. The government’s fireworks consultation closed in October 2026 after receiving more than 140,000 responses from members of the public, businesses, charities and other stakeholders. Policymakers now have an opportunity to assess the social costs alongside safety, business impacts and cultural value. A credible assessment would be honest about what the evidence shows, and about the nationwide economic savings that cannot yet be calculated. Because when a fireworks celebration leaves a bill for people who never attended, its market price only tells part of the story.Narmin Nahidi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.