IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/enreec/v87y2024i8d10.1007_s10640-024-00889-4.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Forest Mitigates Short-Term Health Risk of Air Pollution: Evidence from China

Author

Listed:
  • Shilei Liu

    (Renmin University of China)

  • Jinlei Qi

    (Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention)

  • Jintao Xu

    (Peking University)

  • Yuanyuan Yi

    (Peking University)

  • Peng Yin

    (Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention)

  • Maigeng Zhou

    (Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention)

Abstract

This study assembles satellite data, individual-level death records, and air quality data to estimate forest greenness impact on air pollution and health outcomes in China. We find that forest greenness improves air quality. A 10 percentage-points increase in the seasonal average normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) is estimated to increase the overall air quality index (AQI) by 2.6 (3.8% from its mean of 70.8). This NDVI increase predicts decreases in seasonal cardiorespiratory deaths by 1.09% (9.5 people), and in non-cardiorespiratory deaths by 0.87% (7.3 people), ceteris paribus. Also, forest greenness has a mitigating effect of reducing the mortality risk of air pollution as we find that an additional greenness of 10-percentage-point increase in NDVI contributes to a reduction in air pollution-caused mortality by 0.5 people each season. The elderly and especially the elderly males are more likely to benefit from the mitigation by forest greenness possibly because they are more frequently exposed to air pollution and the greenness. A back-of-the-envelope calculation indicates that doubling the greenness of forest would bring about a health benefit that is far beyond an order of magnitude larger than the cost of forest conservation efforts.

Suggested Citation

  • Shilei Liu & Jinlei Qi & Jintao Xu & Yuanyuan Yi & Peng Yin & Maigeng Zhou, 2024. "Forest Mitigates Short-Term Health Risk of Air Pollution: Evidence from China," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 87(8), pages 2163-2204, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:enreec:v:87:y:2024:i:8:d:10.1007_s10640-024-00889-4
    DOI: 10.1007/s10640-024-00889-4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10640-024-00889-4
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10640-024-00889-4?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. Cheng, Audrey T. & Sims, Katharine R.E. & Yi, Yuanyuan, 2023. "Economic development and conservation impacts of China's nature reserves," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 121(C).
    2. Koichiro Ito & Shuang Zhang, 2020. "Willingness to Pay for Clean Air: Evidence from Air Purifier Markets in China," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 128(5), pages 1627-1672.
    3. Martin Huber, 2014. "Identifying Causal Mechanisms (Primarily) Based On Inverse Probability Weighting," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(6), pages 920-943, September.
    4. Yi, Yuanyuan & Köhlin, Gunnar & Xu, Jintao, 2014. "Property rights, tenure security and forest investment incentives: evidence from China's Collective Forest Tenure Reform," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 19(1), pages 48-73, February.
    5. Bauhoff, Sebastian & Busch, Jonah, 2020. "Does deforestation increase malaria prevalence? Evidence from satellite data and health surveys," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    6. Griliches, Zvi & Hausman, Jerry A., 1986. "Errors in variables in panel data," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 93-118, February.
    7. Kenneth Y. Chay & Michael Greenstone, 2003. "The Impact of Air Pollution on Infant Mortality: Evidence from Geographic Variation in Pollution Shocks Induced by a Recession," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 118(3), pages 1121-1167.
    8. Yi, Yuanyuan, 2023. "Devolution of tenure rights in forestland in China: Impact on investment and forest growth," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    9. He, Guojun & Liu, Tong & Zhou, Maigeng, 2020. "Straw burning, PM2.5, and death: Evidence from China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    10. Mehmet Mehmetoglu, 2018. "medsem: a Stata package for statistical mediation analysis," International Journal of Computational Economics and Econometrics, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 8(1), pages 63-78.
    11. He, Guojun & Fan, Maoyong & Zhou, Maigeng, 2016. "The effect of air pollution on mortality in China: Evidence from the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 18-39.
    12. Currie, Janet & Neidell, Matthew & Schmieder, Johannes F., 2009. "Air pollution and infant health: Lessons from New Jersey," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 688-703, May.
    13. Chen Yuyu & Jin Ginger Zhe & Kumar Naresh & Shi Guang, 2012. "Gaming in Air Pollution Data? Lessons from China," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 13(3), pages 1-43, December.
    14. Eleonora Gullone, 2000. "The Biophilia Hypothesis and Life in the 21st Century: Increasing Mental Health or Increasing Pathology?," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 1(3), pages 293-322, September.
    15. Emmanuelle Lavaine, 2015. "An Econometric Analysis of Atmospheric Pollution, Environmental Disparities and Mortality Rates," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 60(2), pages 215-242, February.
    16. Fan, Maoyong & He, Guojun & Zhou, Maigeng, 2020. "The winter choke: Coal-Fired heating, air pollution, and mortality in China," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    17. Ghanem, Dalia & Zhang, Junjie, 2014. "‘Effortless Perfection:’ Do Chinese cities manipulate air pollution data?," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 68(2), pages 203-225.
    18. Zach Raff & Jason M. Walter, 2020. "Regulatory Avoidance and Spillover: The Effects of Environmental Regulation on Emissions at Coal-Fired Power Plants," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 75(3), pages 387-420, March.
    19. Rory Gibb & David W. Redding & Kai Qing Chin & Christl A. Donnelly & Tim M. Blackburn & Tim Newbold & Kate E. Jones, 2020. "Zoonotic host diversity increases in human-dominated ecosystems," Nature, Nature, vol. 584(7821), pages 398-402, August.
    20. Michael Greenstone & Guojun He & Ruixue Jia & Tong Liu, 2022. "Can Technology Solve the Principal-Agent Problem? Evidence from China's War on Air Pollution," American Economic Review: Insights, American Economic Association, vol. 4(1), pages 54-70, March.
    21. Xia, Fan & Xing, Jianwei & Xu, Jintao & Pan, Xiaochuan, 2022. "The short-term impact of air pollution on medical expenditures: Evidence from Beijing," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    22. Xu, Jintao & Yin, Runsheng & Li, Zhou & Liu, Can, 2006. "China's ecological rehabilitation: Unprecedented efforts, dramatic impacts, and requisite policies," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(4), pages 595-607, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Xin Zhang & Xun Zhang & Yuehua Liu & Xintong Zhao & Xi Chen, 2023. "The morbidity costs of air pollution through the Lens of Health Spending in China," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 36(3), pages 1269-1292, July.
    2. Shi, Xinzheng & Zhang, Ming-ang, 2023. "Waste import and air pollution: Evidence from China's waste import ban," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    3. Tingting Xie & Yong Wang & Ye Yuan, 2024. "Health Benefits from Improved Air Quality: Evidence from Pollution Regulations in China’s “ $$2{+}26$$ 2 + 26 ” Cities," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 87(5), pages 1175-1221, May.
    4. Kong, Dongmin & Liang, Junwei & Liu, Chenhao, 2022. "Invisible enemy: The health impact of ozone," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    5. Wang, Linfeng & Shi, Tie & Chen, Hanyi, 2023. "Air pollution and infant mortality: Evidence from China," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    6. 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.
    7. Colmer, Jonathan & Lin, Dajun & Liu, Siying & Shimshack, Jay, 2021. "Why are pollution damages lower in developed countries? Insights from high-Income, high-particulate matter Hong Kong," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    8. Dong, Yan & Tian, Jinhuan & Wen, Qiang, 2022. "Environmental regulation and outward foreign direct investment: Evidence from China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    9. Chen, Jidong & Shi, Xinzheng & Zhang, Ming-ang & Zhang, Sihan, 2024. "Centralization of environmental administration and air pollution: Evidence from China," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    10. Zheng, Xiaoting & Yang, Lin & Liu, Yumeng, 2023. "The impact of air pollution on outpatient medical service utilization and expenditure in a clean air city," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 338(C).
    11. Chen, Siyu & Guo, Chongshan & Huang, Xinfei, 2018. "Air Pollution, Student Health, and School Absences: Evidence from China," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 465-497.
    12. Xinming Du, 2023. "Symptom or Culprit? Social Media, Air Pollution, and Violence," CESifo Working Paper Series 10296, CESifo.
    13. Yao, Yao & Li, Xue & Smyth, Russell & Zhang, Lin, 2022. "Air pollution and political trust in local government: Evidence from China," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    14. Michael Greenstone & Guojun He & Ruixue Jia & Tong Liu, 2020. "Can Technology Solve the Principal-Agent Problem? Evidence from China’s War on Air Pollution," Working Papers 2020-87, Becker Friedman Institute for Research In Economics.
    15. Cao, Jing & Ma, Rong, 2023. "Mitigating agricultural fires with carrot or stick? Evidence from China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    16. Wang, Yangjie & Chen, Xiaohong & Ren, Shenggang, 2019. "Clean energy adoption and maternal health: Evidence from China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    17. Michael Greenstone & Guojun He & Ruixue Jia & Tong Liu, 2022. "Can Technology Solve the Principal-Agent Problem? Evidence from China's War on Air Pollution," American Economic Review: Insights, American Economic Association, vol. 4(1), pages 54-70, March.
    18. Panle Jia Barwick & Shanjun Li & Liguo Lin & Eric Yongchen Zou, 2024. "From Fog to Smog: The Value of Pollution Information," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 114(5), pages 1338-1381, May.
    19. Cheung, Chun Wai & He, Guojun & Pan, Yuhang, 2020. "Mitigating the air pollution effect? The remarkable decline in the pollution-mortality relationship in Hong Kong," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    20. He, Guojun & Liu, Tong & Zhou, Maigeng, 2020. "Straw burning, PM2.5, and death: Evidence from China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).

    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:kap:enreec:v:87:y:2024:i:8:d:10.1007_s10640-024-00889-4. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.