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American Economic Review Vol. 114 No. 5 2024

From Fog to Smog: The Value of Pollution Information

Panle Jia Barwick1; Shanjun Li2; Liguo Lin3; Eric Zou4

1 Department of Economics, UW-Madison and NBER (email: ) · 2 Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, Cornell University, NBER, and RFF (email: ) · 3 School of Economics, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics (email: ) · 4 Ross School of Business, University of Michigan and NBER (email: )

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.

DOI
10.1257/aer.20200956
Volume
114
Issue
5
Pages
1338-1381
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib crossref openalex

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