American Economic Review Vol. 104 No. 10 2014

Environmental Regulations, Air and Water Pollution, and Infant Mortality in India

Michael Greenstone¹; Rema Hanna²

¹ MIT Department of Economics, E52-359, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA 02142-1347 (e-mail: ) · ² Harvard Kennedy School, 79 JFK Street (Mailbox 26), Cambridge, MA 02138, and National Bureau of Economic Research, Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development (e-mail: ).

Abstract

Using the most comprehensive developing country dataset ever compiled on air and water pollution and environmental regulations, the paper assesses India's environmental regulations with a difference-in-differences design. The air pollution regulations are associated with substantial improvements in air quality. The most successful air regulation resulted in a modest but statistically insignificant decline in infant mortality. In contrast, the water regulations had no measurable benefits. The available evidence leads us to cautiously conclude that higher demand for air quality prompted the effective enforcement of air pollution regulations, indicating that strong public support allows environmental regulations to succeed in weak institutional settings.

DOI

10.1257/aer.104.10.3038

Volume

104

Issue

10

Pages

3038-3072

Language

en

Sources

bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

Cite

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