Air pollution and defensive expenditures: Evidence from particulate-filtering facemasks

Zhang, Junjie; Mu, Qiwen

doi:10.1016/j.jeem.2017.07.006

Cited by 277 publications

(137 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…We note that these cost calculations do not account for the costs of any behavioral responses to pollution. Prior studies have found that short-run (daily) increases in ambient air pollution cause people to stay indoors (Graff Zivin and Neidell 2009;Neidell 2009), buy indoor air purifiers (Ito and Zhang 2016), and buy facemasks (Zhang and Mu 2018). There is some evidence that this avoidance behavior is greater among the elderly than for the population as a whole.…”

Section: B Life-years Lost and The Value Of Mortality Reductionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Mortality and Medical Costs of Air Pollution: Evidence from Changes in Wind Direction

et al. 2016

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, and the WCERE for helpful comments. Dominik Mockus and Eric Zou provided excellent research assistance. We thank Jean Roth for assistance with the Medicare data and Daniel Feenberg and Mohan Ramanujan for system administration. Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R01AG053350. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health nor of the National Bureau of Economic Research. NBER working papers are circulated for discussion and comment purposes. They have not been peer-reviewed or been subject to the review by the NBER Board of Directors that accompanies official NBER publications.

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Section: B Life-years Lost and The Value Of Mortality Reductionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Mortality and Medical Costs of Air Pollution: Evidence from Changes in Wind Direction

et al. 2016

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“…Self-protection strategies, such as wearing masks, using air purifiers and staying inside, can lower people's exposure to pollution (Sun, Kahn, & Zheng, 2017;Zhang & Mu, 2018;Zhang, Sun, Liu, & Zheng, 2016), whereas it also lowers their consumer surplus as they lose access to their city's diverse set of shopping and socializing opportunities. To motivate our empirical work, we introduce a simple demand framework to highlight the linkages of interest.…”

Section: Urban Trip Demand and Local Air Pollutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does clean air increase the demand for the consumer city? Evidence from Beijing

Sun

Zheng

Wang

et al. 2019

Journal of Regional Science

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Cities offer a large menu of possible employment and leisure opportunities. The gains from such consumer city leisure are likely to be lower on more polluted days. We study the association between daily consumption activity and outdoor air pollution in China and find evidence in favor of the hypothesis that clean air and leaving one's home for leisure trips are complements. Given the high levels of air pollution in cities in the developing world, regulation induced improvement in environmental quality is likely to further stimulate demand for the consumer city.

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“…Specific examples include subacute (symptomatic) linkages (7)(8)(9) and studies relating pollution to hospital admissions or clinic visits (10)(11)(12)(13)(14). Researchers have also identified behavioral responses such as exposure avoidance (12), school absences (15), and defensive expenditures (16). The latter is of particular interest to economists, because responses to changes in environmental conditions provide one vehicle for understanding the external costs of pollution (17)(18)(19).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Short-term impact of PM _2.5 on contemporaneous asthma medication use: Behavior and the value of pollution reductions

Williams

Phaneuf

Barrett³

et al. 2018

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Asthma ranks among the most costly of chronic diseases, accounting for over $50 billion annually in direct medical expenditures in the United States. At the same time, evidence has accumulated that fine particulate matter pollution can exacerbate asthma symptoms and generate substantial economic costs. To measure these costs, we use a unique nationwide panel dataset tracking asthmatic individuals’ use of rescue medication and their exposure to PM2.5(particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter of <2.5 μm) concentration between 2012 and 2017, to estimate the causal relationship between pollution and inhaler use. Our sample consists of individuals using an asthma digital health platform, which relies on a wireless sensor to track the place and time of inhaler use events, as well as regular nonevent location and time indicators. These data provide an accurate measurement of inhaler use and allow spatially and temporally resolute assignment of pollution exposure. Using a high-frequency research design and individual fixed effects, we find that a 1 μg/m3(12%) increase in weekly exposure to PM2.5increases weekly inhaler use by 0.82%. We also show that there is seasonal, regional, and income-based heterogeneity in this response. Using our response prediction, and an estimate from the literature on the willingness to pay to avoid asthma symptoms, we show that a nationwide 1 μg/m3reduction in particulate matter concentration would generate nearly $350 million annually in economic benefits.

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Air pollution and defensive expenditures: Evidence from particulate-filtering facemasks

Cited by 277 publications

References 25 publications

The Mortality and Medical Costs of Air Pollution: Evidence from Changes in Wind Direction

The Mortality and Medical Costs of Air Pollution: Evidence from Changes in Wind Direction

Does clean air increase the demand for the consumer city? Evidence from Beijing

Short-term impact of PM _2.5 on contemporaneous asthma medication use: Behavior and the value of pollution reductions

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Air pollution and defensive expenditures: Evidence from particulate-filtering facemasks

Cited by 277 publications

References 25 publications

The Mortality and Medical Costs of Air Pollution: Evidence from Changes in Wind Direction

The Mortality and Medical Costs of Air Pollution: Evidence from Changes in Wind Direction

Does clean air increase the demand for the consumer city? Evidence from Beijing

Short-term impact of PM 2.5 on contemporaneous asthma medication use: Behavior and the value of pollution reductions

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Product

Resources

About

Short-term impact of PM _2.5 on contemporaneous asthma medication use: Behavior and the value of pollution reductions