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American Economic Review Vol. 105 No. 5 2015

Killer Cities: Past and Present

W. Walker Hanlon1; Yuan Tian2

1 Department of Economics, University of California-Los Angeles, 8283 Bunche Hall, 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90095, and NBER (e-mail: ) · 2 Department of Economics, University of California-Los Angeles, 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90095 (e-mail: )

Abstract

The industrial cities of the 19th century were incredibly unhealthy places to live. How much progress has been made in reducing these negative health effects over the past 150 years? To help answer this question, we compare mortality patterns in 19th century England to those in Chinese urban areas in 2000. We document that substantial improvements have been made in improving health in cities over this period. Unlike historical English cities, large cities in China have lower mortality than less populated areas. However, we also provide evidence that in China a substantial relationship between industrial pollution and mortality remains.

DOI
10.1257/aer.p20151071
Volume
105
Issue
5
Pages
570-575
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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