Pub Date : 2024-11-28DOI: 10.1016/j.jeem.2024.103081
Yukiko Hashida , David J. Lewis , Karen Cummins
Climate change has been shown to increase wildfire risk, while prescribed burning is a potential management action that landowners can perform to adapt to such climate-driven changes in risk. This study builds off natural resource economic theory to illustrate how wildfire is jointly determined with privately optimal prescribed burn decisions by landowners. We use panel data on prescribed burn permits across the southeastern U.S. states to empirically estimate (i) how climate and previous large wildfire events affect prescribed burn decisions and (ii) how climate and prescribed burning affect the occurrence of large wildfires. Based on an instrumental variables identification strategy, our estimated simultaneous system finds that a hotter and drier climate will increase prescribed burning, with landowner adaptation to corresponding wildfire risk being a key mechanism. By 2050, we find that a hotter and drier future climate will increase the number of large wildfires from 27 per year under current conditions to 36 per year with climate change but no climate adaptation, and 29 large wildfires per year with both climate change and climate adaptation. This paper provides intuition and quantitative evidence regarding the interaction between climate, wildfire, and landowner management adaptation.
{"title":"Prescribed fires as a climate change adaptation tool","authors":"Yukiko Hashida , David J. Lewis , Karen Cummins","doi":"10.1016/j.jeem.2024.103081","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeem.2024.103081","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Climate change has been shown to increase wildfire risk, while prescribed burning is a potential management action that landowners can perform to adapt to such climate-driven changes in risk. This study builds off natural resource economic theory to illustrate how wildfire is jointly determined with privately optimal prescribed burn decisions by landowners. We use panel data on prescribed burn permits across the southeastern U.S. states to empirically estimate (i) how climate and previous large wildfire events affect prescribed burn decisions and (ii) how climate and prescribed burning affect the occurrence of large wildfires. Based on an instrumental variables identification strategy, our estimated simultaneous system finds that a hotter and drier climate will increase prescribed burning, with landowner adaptation to corresponding wildfire risk being a key mechanism. By 2050, we find that a hotter and drier future climate will increase the number of large wildfires from 27 per year under current conditions to 36 per year with climate change but no climate adaptation, and 29 large wildfires per year with both climate change and climate adaptation. This paper provides intuition and quantitative evidence regarding the interaction between climate, wildfire, and landowner management adaptation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":15763,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Environmental Economics and Management","volume":"130 ","pages":"Article 103081"},"PeriodicalIF":5.5,"publicationDate":"2024-11-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143181981","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-11-26DOI: 10.1016/j.jeem.2024.103082
Yumin Hong
I provide evidence on the detrimental effect of in utero exposure to heat and humidity on children’s health at birth in a middle-income country, Mexico. Humidity affects the body’s ability to regulate heat via perspiration and may thus exacerbate the adverse effects of high temperatures. I link temperature and humidity exposure during pregnancy to individual outcomes regarding 25 million births and stillbirths from 2008 through 2021 using Mexican administrative records. The results show that high wet-bulb temperatures adversely affect birth outcomes. Specifically, each additional day per month with a wet-bulb temperature above 24°C (equivalent to about 40°C at 25% humidity) reduces birth weight by 1.21% and increases the likelihood of preterm birth by 2%. I find that the combined effects of humidity and high temperature on birth outcomes are greater than that of high temperature alone, suggesting that the damaging effects of high temperature can be underestimated when humidity is not accounted for. I also present evidence that the adverse effects of heat on health at birth can be mitigated by adopting air conditioning.
{"title":"Heat and humidity on early-life outcomes: Evidence from Mexico","authors":"Yumin Hong","doi":"10.1016/j.jeem.2024.103082","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeem.2024.103082","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>I provide evidence on the detrimental effect of in utero exposure to heat and humidity on children’s health at birth in a middle-income country, Mexico. Humidity affects the body’s ability to regulate heat via perspiration and may thus exacerbate the adverse effects of high temperatures. I link temperature and humidity exposure during pregnancy to individual outcomes regarding 25 million births and stillbirths from 2008 through 2021 using Mexican administrative records. The results show that high wet-bulb temperatures adversely affect birth outcomes. Specifically, each additional day per month with a wet-bulb temperature above 24°C (equivalent to about 40°C at 25% humidity) reduces birth weight by 1.21% and increases the likelihood of preterm birth by 2%. I find that the combined effects of humidity and high temperature on birth outcomes are greater than that of high temperature alone, suggesting that the damaging effects of high temperature can be underestimated when humidity is not accounted for. I also present evidence that the adverse effects of heat on health at birth can be mitigated by adopting air conditioning.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":15763,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Environmental Economics and Management","volume":"129 ","pages":"Article 103082"},"PeriodicalIF":5.5,"publicationDate":"2024-11-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142743536","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-11-26DOI: 10.1016/j.jeem.2024.103078
Cédric Crofils , Ewen Gallic , Gauthier Vermandel
This paper proposes a new methodological approach using high-frequency data and local projections to assess the impact of weather on agricultural production. Local projections capture both immediate and delayed effects across crop types and growth stages, while providing early warnings for food shortages. Adverse weather shocks, such as excess heat or rain, consistently lead to delayed downturns in production, with heterogeneous effects across time, crops, and seasons. We build a new index of aggregate weather shocks that accounts for the typical delay between event occurrence and economic recognition, finding that these shocks are recessionary at the macroeconomic level, reducing inflation, production, exports and exchange rates.
{"title":"The dynamic effects of weather shocks on agricultural production","authors":"Cédric Crofils , Ewen Gallic , Gauthier Vermandel","doi":"10.1016/j.jeem.2024.103078","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeem.2024.103078","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper proposes a new methodological approach using high-frequency data and local projections to assess the impact of weather on agricultural production. Local projections capture both immediate and delayed effects across crop types and growth stages, while providing early warnings for food shortages. Adverse weather shocks, such as excess heat or rain, consistently lead to delayed downturns in production, with heterogeneous effects across time, crops, and seasons. We build a new index of aggregate weather shocks that accounts for the typical delay between event occurrence and economic recognition, finding that these shocks are recessionary at the macroeconomic level, reducing inflation, production, exports and exchange rates.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":15763,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Environmental Economics and Management","volume":"130 ","pages":"Article 103078"},"PeriodicalIF":5.5,"publicationDate":"2024-11-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142757506","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Compensating agents against substantial and sudden shocks requires both targeting tax policies and taking behavioral responses into account. Based on transaction-level data from France, this article exploits quasi-experimental variation provided by 2022 fuel price inflation and excise tax cuts. After disentangling anticipation from price effects, we estimate a price elasticity of fuel demand of −0.31, on average, which varies little with respect to income and location but substantially decreases with fuel spending, in absolute value. Using targeted transfers only achieves imperfect compensation, yet a budget-constrained policy-maker seeking to alleviate excessive losses relative to income prefers income-based transfers to price subsidies.
{"title":"Compensating against fuel price inflation: Price subsidies or transfers?","authors":"Odran Bonnet , Étienne Fize , Tristan Loisel , Lionel Wilner","doi":"10.1016/j.jeem.2024.103079","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeem.2024.103079","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Compensating agents against substantial and sudden shocks requires both targeting tax policies and taking behavioral responses into account. Based on transaction-level data from France, this article exploits quasi-experimental variation provided by 2022 fuel price inflation and excise tax cuts. After disentangling anticipation from price effects, we estimate a price elasticity of fuel demand of −0.31, on average, which varies little with respect to income and location but substantially decreases with fuel spending, in absolute value. Using targeted transfers only achieves imperfect compensation, yet a budget-constrained policy-maker seeking to alleviate excessive losses relative to income prefers income-based transfers to price subsidies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":15763,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Environmental Economics and Management","volume":"129 ","pages":"Article 103079"},"PeriodicalIF":5.5,"publicationDate":"2024-11-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142744183","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
We study the general equilibrium effects of carbon permit banking during the transition to a climate-neutral economy by 2050. To this end, we develop an environmental dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model, in which the business sector is regulated by a generic emission trading system (ETS). Firms are authorized to transfer unused permits from one period to the next (banking), but the reverse direction (borrowing) is prohibited. Allowing for positive banking gives firms the opportunity to smooth their permit demand along the business cycle. Applications inspired by recent European Union-ETS regulations underscore the critical role of permit banking in shaping policy outcomes. For example, the 2023 cap reform would result in a more significant reduction in both permit banking and carbon emissions, as well as a 40 to 50 increase in the carbon price compared to pre-reform projections, without substantial additional GDP loss by 2060. Importantly, forgetting about permit banking when assessing cap policies would lead to both a significant underestimation of the total macroeconomic effects and an inaccurate representation of the carbon emission trajectory.
{"title":"A general equilibrium approach to carbon permit banking","authors":"Loick Dubois , Jean-Guillaume Sahuc , Gauthier Vermandel","doi":"10.1016/j.jeem.2024.103076","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeem.2024.103076","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We study the general equilibrium effects of carbon permit banking during the transition to a climate-neutral economy by 2050. To this end, we develop an environmental dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model, in which the business sector is regulated by a generic emission trading system (ETS). Firms are authorized to transfer unused permits from one period to the next (banking), but the reverse direction (borrowing) is prohibited. Allowing for positive banking gives firms the opportunity to smooth their permit demand along the business cycle. Applications inspired by recent European Union-ETS regulations underscore the critical role of permit banking in shaping policy outcomes. For example, the 2023 cap reform would result in a more significant reduction in both permit banking and carbon emissions, as well as a 40<span><math><mtext>%</mtext></math></span> to 50<span><math><mtext>%</mtext></math></span> increase in the carbon price compared to pre-reform projections, without substantial additional GDP loss by 2060. Importantly, forgetting about permit banking when assessing cap policies would lead to both a significant underestimation of the total macroeconomic effects and an inaccurate representation of the carbon emission trajectory.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":15763,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Environmental Economics and Management","volume":"129 ","pages":"Article 103076"},"PeriodicalIF":5.5,"publicationDate":"2024-11-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142701341","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-11-22DOI: 10.1016/j.jeem.2024.103075
Takeshi Iida , Arijit Mukherjee
We analyze the effects of domestic environmental damage and pollution intensity on a monopolist final good producer’s incentive for offshoring a critical intermediate good. Contrary to the usual pollution haven hypothesis, we find that a higher domestic environmental damage, which creates a higher domestic environmental tax, may decrease the incentive for offshoring. This trend is enhanced by a higher pollution intensity of the final good production. Hence, a lower pollution intensity of the final good production may increase offshoring and pollution leakage. Offshoring in our analysis can be excessive or insufficient from the point of view of the domestic country.
{"title":"Environmental taxes, offshoring and welfare: The effects of environmental damage and pollution intensity","authors":"Takeshi Iida , Arijit Mukherjee","doi":"10.1016/j.jeem.2024.103075","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeem.2024.103075","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We analyze the effects of domestic environmental damage and pollution intensity on a monopolist final good producer’s incentive for offshoring a critical intermediate good. Contrary to the usual pollution haven hypothesis, we find that a higher domestic environmental damage, which creates a higher domestic environmental tax, may decrease the incentive for offshoring. This trend is enhanced by a higher pollution intensity of the final good production. Hence, a lower pollution intensity of the final good production may increase offshoring and pollution leakage. Offshoring in our analysis can be excessive or insufficient from the point of view of the domestic country.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":15763,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Environmental Economics and Management","volume":"130 ","pages":"Article 103075"},"PeriodicalIF":5.5,"publicationDate":"2024-11-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143181980","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-11-22DOI: 10.1016/j.jeem.2024.103074
Matteo Coronese , Federico Crippa , Francesco Lamperti , Francesca Chiaromonte , Andrea Roventini
Climate change and weather events are increasingly affecting the macroeconomic performance of countries and regions. However, their effects on income inequality are less understood. We estimate the dynamic impact of thunderstorms on income and wages and reveal a robust asymmetric effect. We leverage a comprehensive dataset covering more than 200,000 events affecting contiguous U.S. counties across three decades. Storms have caused the highest number of billion-dollar disaster events since the eighties, but they have the lowest average event cost. They are short-lived, locally confined, relatively frequent, difficult-to-predict, and hazardous albeit not fully destructive events. While such features are convenient for the identification of impacts, previous studies mostly focused on more extreme events. We document a robust negative association between storm activity, income and wages growth. While income tends to recover in the long run, wages exhibit a significantly more stubborn decline, suggesting persistent and adverse impacts on (functional) income inequality. A one standard deviation increase in wind exposure generates a loss of 0.15% (0.21%) in wages after three (nine) years; incomes fall by a larger extent initially (0.19% after three years) while fully recovering in the longer run. In addition to their notable asymmetry, such estimates are non-negligible—especially given the downward rigidity of U.S. wages. Our analyses also highlight a lack of effective adaptation and stronger negative impacts in economically disadvantaged regions. Finally, we find evidence for a sizable shock-absorbing role of federal assistance.
{"title":"Raided by the storm: How three decades of thunderstorms shaped U.S. incomes and wages","authors":"Matteo Coronese , Federico Crippa , Francesco Lamperti , Francesca Chiaromonte , Andrea Roventini","doi":"10.1016/j.jeem.2024.103074","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeem.2024.103074","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Climate change and weather events are increasingly affecting the macroeconomic performance of countries and regions. However, their effects on income inequality are less understood. We estimate the dynamic impact of thunderstorms on income and wages and reveal a robust asymmetric effect. We leverage a comprehensive dataset covering more than 200,000 events affecting contiguous U.S. counties across three decades. Storms have caused the highest number of billion-dollar disaster events since the eighties, but they have the lowest average event cost. They are short-lived, locally confined, relatively frequent, difficult-to-predict, and hazardous albeit not fully destructive events. While such features are convenient for the identification of impacts, previous studies mostly focused on more extreme events. We document a robust negative association between storm activity, income and wages growth. While income tends to recover in the long run, wages exhibit a significantly more stubborn decline, suggesting persistent and adverse impacts on (functional) income inequality. A one standard deviation increase in wind exposure generates a loss of 0.15% (0.21%) in wages after three (nine) years; incomes fall by a larger extent initially (0.19% after three years) while fully recovering in the longer run. In addition to their notable asymmetry, such estimates are non-negligible—especially given the downward rigidity of U.S. wages. Our analyses also highlight a lack of effective adaptation and stronger negative impacts in economically disadvantaged regions. Finally, we find evidence for a sizable shock-absorbing role of federal assistance.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":15763,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Environmental Economics and Management","volume":"130 ","pages":"Article 103074"},"PeriodicalIF":5.5,"publicationDate":"2024-11-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143181982","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-11-22DOI: 10.1016/j.jeem.2024.103077
Zheng Li
Based on comprehensive firm-level datasets and wind pattern information in China, I find evidence of the ‘polluting my neighbor’ phenomenon at the provincial level. Large air-polluting manufacturing firms tend to be disproportionately situated near downwind borders, particularly when wind speeds are lower. Quantitatively, the expected number of new large air polluters (top 10%) in a county-year cell decreases by 11% as the county’s distance to the downwind province border increases by one standard deviation (192 km). Additionally, a one-standard-deviation (0.27 m/s) increase in wind speed reduces the expected number of large air polluters by 6% in counties 100 km closer to the downwind border. The results are robust across various empirical strategies and withstand multiple placebo tests and robustness checks. This finding is predominantly driven by top 10% largest air polluters since placing larger polluters closer to the border can externalize more environmental costs. Furthermore, I demonstrate that this strategic siting of air polluters leads to air quality inequality, disproportionately affecting socioeconomically disadvantaged populations in downwind areas within a province.
{"title":"Polluting my downwind neighbor: Evidence of interjurisdictional free riding from air polluter locations in China","authors":"Zheng Li","doi":"10.1016/j.jeem.2024.103077","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeem.2024.103077","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Based on comprehensive firm-level datasets and wind pattern information in China, I find evidence of the ‘polluting my neighbor’ phenomenon at the provincial level. Large air-polluting manufacturing firms tend to be disproportionately situated near downwind borders, particularly when wind speeds are lower. Quantitatively, the expected number of new large air polluters (top 10%) in a county-year cell decreases by 11% as the county’s distance to the downwind province border increases by one standard deviation (192 km). Additionally, a one-standard-deviation (0.27 m/s) increase in wind speed reduces the expected number of large air polluters by 6% in counties 100 km closer to the downwind border. The results are robust across various empirical strategies and withstand multiple placebo tests and robustness checks. This finding is predominantly driven by top 10% largest air polluters since placing larger polluters closer to the border can externalize more environmental costs. Furthermore, I demonstrate that this strategic siting of air polluters leads to air quality inequality, disproportionately affecting socioeconomically disadvantaged populations in downwind areas within a province.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":15763,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Environmental Economics and Management","volume":"130 ","pages":"Article 103077"},"PeriodicalIF":5.5,"publicationDate":"2024-11-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143183285","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-11-01DOI: 10.1016/j.jeem.2024.103073
Elías Cisneros , Krisztina Kis-Katos
High agricultural profits motivate politicians to collude with local elites and ignore illegal conversion of natural forests. Fighting corruption through fiscal audits can improve local governance in general but may also unintentionally intensify such collusion and rent extraction activities within the less scrutinized forestry sector. This paper highlights such unintended consequences of a federal anti-corruption strategy in Brazil by documenting the causal effects of randomized fiscal audits on deforestation dynamics, a non-targeted outcome. Between 2003 and 2011, public audits of federal funds increased deforestation by about 10% in municipalities of the Brazilian Amazon within the first three years after the audit. The audits triggered forest loss, especially during election years, in municipalities governed by first-term mayors who managed to win re-elections afterwards, and in places with a high share of cattle ranching, indicating potential collusion between local politicians and the agricultural sector.
{"title":"Unintended environmental consequences of anti-corruption strategies","authors":"Elías Cisneros , Krisztina Kis-Katos","doi":"10.1016/j.jeem.2024.103073","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeem.2024.103073","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>High agricultural profits motivate politicians to collude with local elites and ignore illegal conversion of natural forests. Fighting corruption through fiscal audits can improve local governance in general but may also unintentionally intensify such collusion and rent extraction activities within the less scrutinized forestry sector. This paper highlights such unintended consequences of a federal anti-corruption strategy in Brazil by documenting the causal effects of randomized fiscal audits on deforestation dynamics, a non-targeted outcome. Between 2003 and 2011, public audits of federal funds increased deforestation by about 10% in municipalities of the Brazilian Amazon within the first three years after the audit. The audits triggered forest loss, especially during election years, in municipalities governed by first-term mayors who managed to win re-elections afterwards, and in places with a high share of cattle ranching, indicating potential collusion between local politicians and the agricultural sector.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":15763,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Environmental Economics and Management","volume":"128 ","pages":"Article 103073"},"PeriodicalIF":5.5,"publicationDate":"2024-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142657507","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-11-01DOI: 10.1016/j.jeem.2024.103072
Shinsuke Tanaka
We estimate the causal effects of long-term exposure to air pollution emitted from fossil fuel power plants on adult mortality. We leverage quasi-experimental variation in daily wind patterns, which is further instrumented by the county orientation from the nearest power plant. We find that the county’s fraction of days spent downwind of plants within 20 miles in the last 10 years is associated with increased mortality from COVID-19 through the third peak in mortality in January 2021. This effect is more pronounced in fenceline communities with high poverty rates, low health insurance coverage, and low educational attainment.
{"title":"Blowin’ in the wind: Long-term downwind exposure to air pollution from power plants and adult mortality","authors":"Shinsuke Tanaka","doi":"10.1016/j.jeem.2024.103072","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeem.2024.103072","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We estimate the causal effects of long-term exposure to air pollution emitted from fossil fuel power plants on adult mortality. We leverage quasi-experimental variation in daily wind patterns, which is further instrumented by the county orientation from the nearest power plant. We find that the county’s fraction of days spent downwind of plants within 20 miles in the last 10 years is associated with increased mortality from COVID-19 through the third peak in mortality in January 2021. This effect is more pronounced in fenceline communities with high poverty rates, low health insurance coverage, and low educational attainment.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":15763,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Environmental Economics and Management","volume":"128 ","pages":"Article 103072"},"PeriodicalIF":5.5,"publicationDate":"2024-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142571508","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}