Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP13805
Authors: Hannes Schwandt; Diane Alexander
Abstract: Car exhaust is a major source of air pollution, but little is known about its impacts on population health. We exploit the dispersion of emissions-cheating diesel cars—which secretly polluted up to 150 times as much as gasoline cars—across the United States from 2008-2015 as a natural experiment to measure the health impact of car pollution. Using the universe of vehicle registrations, we demonstrate that a 10 percent cheating-induced increase in car exhaust increases rates of low birth weight and acute asthma attacks among children by 1.9 and 8.0 percent, respectively. These health impacts occur at all pollution levels and across the entire socioeconomic spectrum.
Keywords: car pollution; health; emissions cheating
JEL Codes: I10; I14; K32; J13
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| cheating diesel cars (F18) | low birth weight (J13) |
| cheating diesel cars (F18) | asthma emergency department visits (I19) |
| car pollution (Q53) | health outcomes (I14) |
| cheating diesel cars (F18) | adverse health outcomes (I14) |