Clean air as an experience good in urban China
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 reducin...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Elsevier BV
2022
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/140218.2 |
| _version_ | 1811095209608478720 |
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| author | Kahn, Matthew E Sun, Weizeng Zheng, Siqi |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Urban Studies and Planning |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Urban Studies and Planning Kahn, Matthew E Sun, Weizeng Zheng, Siqi |
| author_sort | Kahn, Matthew E |
| collection | MIT |
| description | 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. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T16:12:35Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/140218.2 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T16:12:35Z |
| publishDate | 2022 |
| publisher | Elsevier BV |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/140218.22024-06-03T17:22:32Z Clean air as an experience good in urban China Kahn, Matthew E Sun, Weizeng Zheng, Siqi Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Urban Studies and Planning Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Center for Real Estate 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. 2022-02-08T19:20:02Z 2022-02-08T12:44:17Z 2022-02-08T19:20:02Z 2022-02 2021-08 2022-02-08T12:42:03Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 0921-8009 https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/140218.2 Kahn, Matthew E, Sun, Weizeng and Zheng, Siqi. 2022. "Clean air as an experience good in urban China." Ecological Economics, 192. en http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2021.107254 Ecological Economics Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ application/octet-stream Elsevier BV NBER |
| spellingShingle | Kahn, Matthew E Sun, Weizeng Zheng, Siqi Clean air as an experience good in urban China |
| title | Clean air as an experience good in urban China |
| title_full | Clean air as an experience good in urban China |
| title_fullStr | Clean air as an experience good in urban China |
| title_full_unstemmed | Clean air as an experience good in urban China |
| title_short | Clean air as an experience good in urban China |
| title_sort | clean air as an experience good in urban china |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/140218.2 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT kahnmatthewe cleanairasanexperiencegoodinurbanchina AT sunweizeng cleanairasanexperiencegoodinurbanchina AT zhengsiqi cleanairasanexperiencegoodinurbanchina |