Defensive Investments and the Demand for Air Quality: Evidence from the NOx Budget Program

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Deschenes, Olivier; Greenstone, Michael; Shapiro, Joseph S.
• 署名单位: University of California System; University of California Santa Barbara; IZA Institute Labor Economics; National Bureau of Economic Research; University of Chicago; Yale University
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0002-8282
• DOI: 10.1257/aer.20131002
• 发表日期: 2017
• 页码: 2958-2989
• 关键词: avoidance-behavior evidence; CLIMATE-CHANGE; housing-market; HEALTH; pollution; mortality; asthma; matter; ozone; US

摘要

The demand for air quality depends on health impacts and defensive investments, but little research assesses the empirical importance of defenses. A rich quasi-experiment suggests that the Nitrogen Oxides (NOx) Budget Program (NBP), a cap-and-trade market, decreased NOx emissions, ambient ozone concentrations, pharmaceutical expenditures, and mortality rates. The annual reductions in pharmaceutical purchases, a key defensive investment, and mortality are valued at about $800 million and $1.3 billion, respectively, suggesting that defenses are over one-third of willingness-to-pay for reductions in NOx emissions. Further, estimates indicate that the NBP's benefits easily exceed its costs and that NOx reductions have substantial benefits.