Subways and Urban Air Pollution

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Gendron-Carrier, Nicolas; Gonzalez-Navarro, Marco; Polloni, Stefano; Turner, Matthew A.
• 署名单位: McGill University; Universite de Montreal; Universite de Montreal; University of California System; University of California Berkeley; Brown University; National Bureau of Economic Research
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-APPLIED ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7782
• DOI: 10.1257/app.20180168
• 发表日期: 2022
• 页码: 164-196
• 关键词: infant-mortality; fundamental law; QUALITY; IMPACT; LIFE

摘要

We investigate the effect of subway system openings on urban air pollution. On average, particulate concentrations are unchanged by subway openings. For cities with higher initial pollution levels, subway openings reduce particulates by 4 percent in the area sur-rounding a city center. The effect decays with distance to city center and persists over the longest time horizon that we can measure with our data, about four years. For highly polluted cities, we estimate that a new subway system provides an external mortality benefit of about $1 billion per year. For less polluted cities, the effect is indis-tinguishable from zero. Back of the envelope cost estimates suggest that reduced mortality due to lower air pollution offsets a substantial share of the construction costs of subways. (JEL I12, L92, O13, O18, Q51, Q53, R41)