IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecolec/v163y2019icp42-51.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Understanding the micro-determinants of defensive behaviors against pollution

Author

Listed:
  • Williams, Austin M.

Abstract

Air and water pollution impose substantial health costs on exposed populations. Individuals frequently engage in behaviors aimed at reducing this exposure, and these actions have associated costs. I use survey data to assess which types of individuals are most likely to engage in defensive behaviors and how this response varies over multiple types of environmental risk. Further, I assess the economic determinants of these defensive decisions. I find that education, age, hours spent on leisure activities, insurance status, and health status are significantly associated with defensive actions. In addition to providing information on which groups are responding to environmental degradation, this study investigates how underlying preferences and economic characteristics influence the type of defensive response.

Suggested Citation

  • Williams, Austin M., 2019. "Understanding the micro-determinants of defensive behaviors against pollution," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 42-51.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:163:y:2019:i:c:p:42-51
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2019.05.007
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800918304993
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2019.05.007?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Shimshack, Jay P. & Ward, Michael B. & Beatty, Timothy K.M., 2007. "Mercury advisories: Information, education, and fish consumption," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 53(2), pages 158-179, March.
    2. Cutter, W. Bowman & Neidell, Matthew, 2009. "Voluntary information programs and environmental regulation: Evidence from 'Spare the Air'," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 58(3), pages 253-265, November.
    3. Alison L. Sexton Ward & Timothy K. M. Beatty, 2016. "Who Responds to Air Quality Alerts?," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 65(2), pages 487-511, October.
    4. Timothy J. Bartik, 2008. "Evaluating the Benefits of Non-marginal Reductions in Pollution Using Information on Defensive Expenditures," Book chapters authored by Upjohn Institute researchers, in: Joseph Herriges & Catherine L. Kling (ed.),Revealed Preference Approaches to Environmental Valuation, volume 0, pages 459-475, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
    5. Phaneuf,Daniel J. & Requate,Till, 2017. "A Course in Environmental Economics," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107004177, January.
    6. Matthew Neidell, 2009. "Information, Avoidance Behavior, and Health: The Effect of Ozone on Asthma Hospitalizations," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 44(2).
    7. Harrington, Winston & Portney, Paul R., 1987. "Valuing the benefits of health and safety regulation," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 101-112, July.
    8. Grossman, Michael, 1972. "On the Concept of Health Capital and the Demand for Health," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 80(2), pages 223-255, March-Apr.
    9. Sun, Cong & Kahn, Matthew E. & Zheng, Siqi, 2017. "Self-protection investment exacerbates air pollution exposure inequality in urban China," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 468-474.
    10. Wu, Stephen, 2003. "Sickness and preventive medical behavior," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 675-689, July.
    11. Krupnick, Alan J & Cropper, Maureen L, 1992. "The Effect of Information on Health Risk Valuations," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 5(1), pages 29-48, February.
    12. Anderson, Lisa R. & Mellor, Jennifer M., 2008. "Predicting health behaviors with an experimental measure of risk preference," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(5), pages 1260-1274, September.
    13. Smith, V Kerry & Desvousges, William H & Payne, John W, 1995. "Do Risk Information Programs Promote Mitigating Behavior?," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 10(3), pages 203-221, May.
    14. Ann L. Owen & Julio Videras & Stephen Wu, 2012. "More Information Is Not Always Better: The Case Of Voluntary Provision Of Environmental Quality," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 50(3), pages 585-603, July.
    15. Leslie Richardson & John B. Loomis & Patricia A. Champ, 2013. "Valuing Morbidity from Wildfire Smoke Exposure: A Comparison of Revealed and Stated Preference Techniques," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 89(1), pages 76-100.
    16. John Mullahy, 1999. "It'll only hurt a second? Microeconomic determinants of who gets flu shots," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 8(1), pages 9-24, February.
    17. Saberian, Soodeh & Heyes, Anthony & Rivers, Nicholas, 2017. "Alerts work! Air quality warnings and cycling," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 165-185.
    18. Phaneuf,Daniel J. & Requate,Till, 2017. "A Course in Environmental Economics," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521178693, January.
    19. Sendhil Mullainathan & Jann Spiess, 2017. "Machine Learning: An Applied Econometric Approach," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 31(2), pages 87-106, Spring.
    20. Joshua Graff Zivin & Matthew Neidell & Wolfram Schlenker, 2011. "Water Quality Violations and Avoidance Behavior: Evidence from Bottled Water Consumption," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(3), pages 448-453, May.
    21. Graff Zivin, Joshua & Neidell, Matthew, 2009. "Days of haze: Environmental information disclosure and intertemporal avoidance behavior," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 58(2), pages 119-128, September.
    22. Jay Shimshack, 2004. "Are Mercury Advisories Effective? Inofrmation, Education, and Fish Consumption," Discussion Papers Series, Department of Economics, Tufts University 0423, Department of Economics, Tufts University.
    23. Janke, Katharina, 2014. "Air pollution, avoidance behaviour and children's respiratory health: Evidence from England," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 23-42.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Wei Chen & Jian Chen & Guopeng Yin, 2022. "Exploring side effects of ridesharing services in urban China: role of pollution–averting behavior," Electronic Commerce Research, Springer, vol. 22(4), pages 1007-1034, December.
    2. Wenxia Zhao, 2020. "Effect of air pollution on household insurance purchases. Evidence from China household finance survey data," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(11), pages 1-11, November.
    3. Antoci, Angelo & Borghesi, Simone & Galeotti, Marcello & Sodini, Mauro, 2021. "Living in an uncertain world: Environment substitution, local and global indeterminacy," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    4. Khadija Ashraf & Kangjae Lee & Geunhan Kim & Jeon-Young Kang, 2024. "Sales in Commercial Alleys and Their Association with Air Pollution: Case Study in South Korea," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(2), pages 1-19, January.
    5. Chen, Xiaohong & Zhao, Jinhua & Zhou, Li, 2024. "Knowledge protects against pollution: The health effects of the cadmium rice event in China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    6. Chen, Ke & Gong, Yazhen & Zhao, Jinhua, 2024. "Are facemasks effective against particulate matter pollution? Evidence from the field," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Tong Liu & Guojun He & Alexis Lau, 2018. "Avoidance behavior against air pollution: evidence from online search indices for anti-PM2.5 masks and air filters in Chinese cities," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 20(2), pages 325-363, April.
    2. Mariano J. Rabassa & Mariana Conte Grand & Christian M. García-Witulski, 2021. "Heat warnings and avoidance behavior: evidence from a bike-sharing system," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 23(1), pages 1-28, January.
    3. Joshua Graff Zivin & Matthew Neidell, 2013. "Environment, Health, and Human Capital," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 51(3), pages 689-730, September.
    4. Zhang, Junjie & Mu, Quan, 2018. "Air pollution and defensive expenditures: Evidence from particulate-filtering facemasks," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 517-536.
    5. Wang, Zhenxuan & Zhang, Junjie, 2023. "The value of information disclosure: Evidence from mask consumption in China," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).
    6. Mullan, Katrina & Avery, Teigan & Boise, Patrick & Leary, Cindy S. & Rice, William L. & Semmens, Erin O., 2024. "Impacts of wildfire-season air quality on park and playground visitation in the Northwest United States," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 224(C).
    7. Olivier Deschênes & Michael Greenstone & Joseph S. Shapiro, 2017. "Defensive Investments and the Demand for Air Quality: Evidence from the NOx Budget Program," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(10), pages 2958-2989, October.
    8. Alison L. Sexton Ward & Timothy K. M. Beatty, 2016. "Who Responds to Air Quality Alerts?," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 65(2), pages 487-511, October.
    9. Shr, Yau-Huo & Hsu, Wen & Hwang, Bing-Fang & Jung, Chau-Ren, 2023. "Air quality and risky behaviors on roads," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    10. Chen, Xiaohong & Zhao, Jinhua & Zhou, Li, 2024. "Knowledge protects against pollution: The health effects of the cadmium rice event in China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    11. Timothy K. M. Beatty & Jay P. Shimshack & Richard J. Volpe, 2019. "Disaster Preparedness and Disaster Response: Evidence from Sales of Emergency Supplies Before and After Hurricanes," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 6(4), pages 633-668.
    12. Edward E. Schlee & V. Kerry Smith, 2022. "The welfare cost of uncertainity in policy outcomes," Chapters, in: The Economics of Environmental Risk, chapter 4, pages 65-76, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    13. Lohmann, Paul M. & Gsottbauer, Elisabeth & You, Jing & Kontoleon, Andreas, 2023. "Air pollution and anti-social behaviour: Evidence from a randomised lab-in-the-field experiment," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 320(C).
    14. Wen Hsu & Bing-Fang Hwang & Chau-Ren Jung & Yau-Huo Jimmy Shr, 2021. "Can Air Pollution Save Lives? Air Quality and Risky Behaviors on Roads," Papers 2111.06837, arXiv.org, revised Dec 2021.
    15. Janet Currie & Joshua Graff Zivin & Katherine Meckel & Matthew Neidell & Wolfram Schlenker, 2013. "Something in the water: contaminated drinking water and infant health," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 46(3), pages 791-810, August.
    16. Pakhtigian, Emily L. & Aziz, Sonia & Boyle, Kevin J. & Akanda, Ali S. & Hanifi, S.M.A., 2024. "Early warning systems, mobile technology, and cholera aversion: Evidence from rural Bangladesh," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    17. Graff Zivin, Joshua & Neidell, Matthew, 2009. "Days of haze: Environmental information disclosure and intertemporal avoidance behavior," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 58(2), pages 119-128, September.
    18. Bruno Lanz, 2015. "Avertive expenditures, endogenous quality perception, and the demand for public goods: An instrumental variable approach," CIES Research Paper series 36-2015, Centre for International Environmental Studies, The Graduate Institute.
    19. Wei Chen & Jian Chen & Guopeng Yin, 2022. "Exploring side effects of ridesharing services in urban China: role of pollution–averting behavior," Electronic Commerce Research, Springer, vol. 22(4), pages 1007-1034, December.
    20. Sun, Cong & Kahn, Matthew E. & Zheng, Siqi, 2017. "Self-protection investment exacerbates air pollution exposure inequality in urban China," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 468-474.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:163:y:2019:i:c:p:42-51. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolecon .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.