Clean air as an experience good in urban China
Name
w27790.pdf
Description
Submitted version
Size
1.96 MB
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Unknown
Checksum (MD5)
580145ffb803ac23e96da3b2490b9f64
Author(s)
Kahn, Matthew E
Sun, Weizeng
Zheng, Siqi
Date Issued
February 2022
Journal
Ecological Economics
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Citation
Kahn, Matthew E, Sun, Weizeng and Zheng, Siqi. 2022. "Clean air as an experience good in urban China." Ecological Economics, 192.
Version
Original manuscript
Abstract
The surprise economic shutdown due to COVID-19 caused a sharp improvement in urban air quality in many previously heavily polluted Chinese cities. If clean air is a valued experience good, then this short-term reduction in pollution in spring 2020 could have persistent medium-term effects on reducing urban pollution levels as cities adopt new "blue sky" regulations to maintain recent pollution progress. We document that China's cross-city Environmental Kuznets Curve shifts as a function of a city's demand for clean air. We rank 144 cities in China based on their population's baseline sensitivity to air pollution and with respect to their recent air pollution gains due to the COVID shutdown. The largest experience good effect should take place for cities featuring a high pollution sensitive population and where air quality has sharply improved during the pandemic. The residents of these cities have increased their online discussions focused on environmental protection, and local officials are incorporating "green" industrial subsidies into post-COVID stimulus policies.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Urban Studies and Planning
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Center for Real Estate
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2021.107254
