The Effect of Leaded Gasoline on Elderly Mortality: Evidence from Regulatory Exemptions

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Hollingsworth, Alex; Rudik, Ivan
• 署名单位: Indiana University System; Indiana University Bloomington; Cornell University
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-ECONOMIC POLICY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7731
• DOI: 10.1257/pol.20190654
• 发表日期: 2021
• 页码: 345-373
• 关键词: air act amendments; blood lead; clean-air; environmental-regulations; socioeconomic-status; infant-mortality; exposure; HEALTH; pollution; CHILDREN

摘要

Leaded gasoline is still used globally for aviation and automotive racing. Exploiting regulatory exemptions and a novel quasi-experiment, we find that leaded gasoline use in racing increases ambient lead, elevated blood lead rates, and elderly mortality. The mortality estimates indicate that each gram of lead added to gasoline exceeds $1,100 in damages. Our setting allows us to rule out potential con-founders, such as correlated pollutants or socioeconomic status. We provide the first causal estimates linking adult mortality to leaded gasoline, highlight the value of banning on-road leaded gasoline, and present -policy-relevant cost estimates at the lowest ambient levels to date.