Working Paper: NBER ID: w26541
Authors: Panle Jia Barwick; Shanjun Li; Liguo Lin; Eric Zou
Abstract: In 2013, China launched a landmark program to monitor air quality and disclose real-time data, significantly increasing the public’s access to and awareness of pollution information. The program triggered cascading behavioral changes such as stronger avoidance of outdoor pollution exposure and increased spending on protective products. These behavioral responses mitigated the mortality impact of air pollution. Conservative estimates indicate that the program’s health benefits outweigh the costs by an order of magnitude. The findings highlight the benefits of improving public access to pollution information in developing countries which often experience severe air pollution but lack pollution data collection and dissemination.
Keywords: pollution; information; China; health outcomes; behavioral responses
JEL Codes: D80; I10; Q53; Q58
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| pollution monitoring program (Q53) | public access to pollution information (Q53) |
| public access to pollution information (Q53) | citizen awareness about air quality issues (Q53) |
| citizen awareness about air quality issues (Q53) | pollution-related articles in the People's Daily (Q53) |
| citizen awareness about air quality issues (Q53) | online searches for pollution terms (Q53) |
| citizen awareness about air quality issues (Q53) | pollution avoidance behaviors (Q52) |
| pollution avoidance behaviors (Q52) | deferrable consumption categories (D12) |
| pollution monitoring program (Q53) | air purifier sales (Q53) |
| pollution monitoring program (Q53) | mortality-pollution elasticity (Q52) |
| pollution monitoring program (Q53) | annual benefits of behavioral changes (D91) |