{"title":"Sociodemographic disparities in ambient particulate matter exposure in Austria","authors":"Klara Zwickl , Xenia Miklin , Asjad Naqvi","doi":"10.1016/j.ecolecon.2024.108180","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>We investigate the unequal exposure of neighborhoods to ambient particulate matter in Austria, utilizing municipality-level data from the European Environment Agency and sociodemographic data from Statistics Austria. Particulate matter is a major contributor to environmental health risks, and despite progress, large parts of Austria exceed safe air quality levels. Our analysis shows that foreign nationals encounter considerably higher levels of particulate matter exposure. This finding remains robust to the inclusion of various controls, across different exposure indicators, within and between regions, as well as within urban and rural neighborhoods. Furthermore, people with low educational attainment tend to be more exposed to particulate matter. Regarding income, we observe an inverted U-shaped pattern in which positive associations are prevalent across most income levels, with insignificant or negative links observed at high incomes. Overall, our findings underscore that socioeconomically vulnerable neighborhoods are exposed to higher levels of particulate matter.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":51021,"journal":{"name":"Ecological Economics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":6.6000,"publicationDate":"2024-06-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Ecological Economics","FirstCategoryId":"96","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800924000776","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ECOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
We investigate the unequal exposure of neighborhoods to ambient particulate matter in Austria, utilizing municipality-level data from the European Environment Agency and sociodemographic data from Statistics Austria. Particulate matter is a major contributor to environmental health risks, and despite progress, large parts of Austria exceed safe air quality levels. Our analysis shows that foreign nationals encounter considerably higher levels of particulate matter exposure. This finding remains robust to the inclusion of various controls, across different exposure indicators, within and between regions, as well as within urban and rural neighborhoods. Furthermore, people with low educational attainment tend to be more exposed to particulate matter. Regarding income, we observe an inverted U-shaped pattern in which positive associations are prevalent across most income levels, with insignificant or negative links observed at high incomes. Overall, our findings underscore that socioeconomically vulnerable neighborhoods are exposed to higher levels of particulate matter.
期刊介绍:
Ecological Economics is concerned with extending and integrating the understanding of the interfaces and interplay between "nature''s household" (ecosystems) and "humanity''s household" (the economy). Ecological economics is an interdisciplinary field defined by a set of concrete problems or challenges related to governing economic activity in a way that promotes human well-being, sustainability, and justice. The journal thus emphasizes critical work that draws on and integrates elements of ecological science, economics, and the analysis of values, behaviors, cultural practices, institutional structures, and societal dynamics. The journal is transdisciplinary in spirit and methodologically open, drawing on the insights offered by a variety of intellectual traditions, and appealing to a diverse readership.
Specific research areas covered include: valuation of natural resources, sustainable agriculture and development, ecologically integrated technology, integrated ecologic-economic modelling at scales from local to regional to global, implications of thermodynamics for economics and ecology, renewable resource management and conservation, critical assessments of the basic assumptions underlying current economic and ecological paradigms and the implications of alternative assumptions, economic and ecological consequences of genetically engineered organisms, and gene pool inventory and management, alternative principles for valuing natural wealth, integrating natural resources and environmental services into national income and wealth accounts, methods of implementing efficient environmental policies, case studies of economic-ecologic conflict or harmony, etc. New issues in this area are rapidly emerging and will find a ready forum in Ecological Economics.