When Externalities Collide: Influenza and Pollutions

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Zivin, Joshua Graff; Neidell, Matthew; Sanders, Nicholas J.; Singer, Gregor
• 署名单位: University of California System; University of California San Diego; Columbia University; Cornell University; University of London; London School Economics & Political Science
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-APPLIED ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7782
• DOI: 10.1257/app.20210500
• 发表日期: 2023
• 页码: 320-351
• 关键词: air-pollution; vaccine effectiveness; UNITED-STATES; relative-humidity; virus; mortality; survival; season; dust; transmission

摘要

Influenza and air pollution each pose significant health risks with global economic consequences. Their shared etiological pathways present a case of compounding health risk via interacting externali-ties. Using instrumental variables based on changing wind direction, we show that increased levels of contemporaneous pollution increase influenza hospitalizations. We exploit random variation in effective-ness of the influenza vaccine as an additional instrument to show that vaccine protection neutralizes this relationship. Thus, pollution con-trol and vaccination campaigns jointly provide greater returns than those implied by addressing either in isolation. We show the impor-tance of this consideration in addressing observed gaps in influenza incidence by race. (JEL D62, I12, J15, Q51, Q53)