Evidence on the impact of Sustained Exposure to Air Pollution on Life Expectancy from China's Huai River Policy
Name
Greenstone13-15.pdf
Description
Working Paper
Size
447.04 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
de1bb38e234f8b64645e517d75798f7e
Author(s)
Chen, Yuyu
Ebenstein, Avraham
Greenstone, Michael
Li, Hongbin
Date Issued
October 18, 2013
Publisher
Cambridge, MA: Department of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Series/Report no.
MIT Department of Economics Working Paper Series;13-15
Abstract
This paper's findings suggest that an arbitrary Chinese policy that greatly increases total suspended particulates (TSP) air pollution is causing the 500 million residents of Northern China to lose more than 2.5 billion life years of life expectancy. The quasi-experimental empirical approach is based on China's Huai River policy, which provided free winter heating via the provision of coal for boilers in cities North of the Huai River but denied heat to the South. Using a regression discontinuity design based on distance from the Huai River, we find that ambient concentrations of TSP are about 184 μg/m3 (95% CI: 61, 307) or 55% higher in the North. Further, the results indicate that life expectancies are about 5.5 (95% CI: 0.8, 10.2) years lower in the North due to an increased incidence of cardiorespiratory mortality. More generally, the analysis suggests that long-term exposure to an additional 100 μg/m3 of TSP is associated with a reduction in life expectancy at birth of about 3.0 years (95% CI: 0.4, 5.6).
Subjects
Life expectancy, air pollution, particulate matter, Chinese policy, Huai
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