What Caused Racial Disparities in Particulate Exposure to Fall? New Evidence from the Clean Air Act and Satellite-Based Measures of Air Quality

Abstract

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The Role of Carbon Pricing in Climate Policy

“…Hernandez-Cortes and Meng (2021) provide evidence that California's cap and trade system reversed previously widening "environmental justice gaps" in carbon co-pollutants, including particulate matter, NO x , and SO x . Similarly, Currie et al (2019) provide evidence that the Clean Air Act was the single largest contributor to racial convergence in PM 2.5 since 2000.…”

Exposures and behavioral responses to wildfire smoke

“…If such behaviors are indeed hard to adopt, then the policy approach of promoting private provision of protection could be biased against disadvantaged groups. This policy approach also stands in stark contrast to the approach of public provision of protection used for other sources of PM 2.5 , which has sought to reduce emissions of pollutants at their source and which has successfully reduced overall ambient exposure inequalities (47). Further understanding the variation and causes of the behaviors that can protect indoor environments will be key to designing policy that can both lower indoor concentrations and not disadvantage certain groups.…”

Up in the Air: Air Pollution and Crime – Evidence from India

“…In areas with a poor spatial and temporal resolution of pollution measures, such as the area in our study, satellite data on air pollution is a good proxy for ambient air pollution (Chowdhury et al (2019)). Increasingly economists are using satellite data to overcome the problem of low and variable spatial and temporal coverage of groundbased measurement of ambient air pollution (Bombardini & Li (2020), Burgess et al (2012), Currie et al (2020), andJayachandran (2009)). Although there are more than seventy ground-based monitoring stations in Bihar, not all measure PM2.5 concentration.…”