COAL SMOKE, CITY GROWTH, AND THE COSTS OF THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Hanlon, W. Walker
• 署名单位: National Bureau of Economic Research
• 刊物名称: ECONOMIC JOURNAL
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0013-0133
• DOI: 10.1093/ej/uez055
• 发表日期: 2020
• 页码: 462-488
• 关键词: air-pollution; urban disamenities; PRODUCTIVITY; CONSEQUENCES; location; QUALITY; HEALTH

摘要

This article provides the first rigorous estimates of how industrial air pollution from coal burning affects long-run city growth. I introduce a new theoretically grounded strategy for estimating this relationship and apply it to data from highly polluted British cities from 1851 to 1911. I show that local industrial coal use substantially reduced long-run city employment and population growth. Moreover, a counterfactual analysis suggests that plausible improvements in coal-use efficiency would have led to a higher urbanisation rate in Britain by 1911. These findings contribute to our understanding of the effects of air pollution and the environmental costs of industrialisation.