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Does Access to Health Care Mitigate Environmental Damages?

Author

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  • Jamie Mullins

    (Department of Economics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst)

  • Corey White

    (Department of Economics, California Polytechnic State University)

Abstract

Differential access to health care is commonly cited as a source of heterogeneity in environmental health damages, yet little causal evidence exists to support such claims. We address this deficit in two settings by testing whether the negative impacts of ambient temperature exposure on mortality were mitigated by (1) access to primary care through the Community Health Center program, and (2) access to hospital care through the desegregation of Southern hospitals. The results demonstrate that increased access to health care can drive heterogeneity in environmental damages when the mode of care is sufficiently relevant to the damages suffered.

Suggested Citation

  • Jamie Mullins & Corey White, 2019. "Does Access to Health Care Mitigate Environmental Damages?," Working Papers 1905, California Polytechnic State University, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpl:wpaper:1905
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Doremus, Jacqueline M. & Jacqz, Irene & Johnston, Sarah, 2022. "Sweating the energy bill: Extreme weather, poor households, and the energy spending gap," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
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    3. Jonathan Colmer & Jennifer L. Doleac, 2023. "Access to guns in the heat of the moment: more restrictive gun laws mitigate the effect of temperature on violence," CEP Discussion Papers dp1934, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Health Care; Access; Climate; Temperature; Environment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General
    • I14 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health and Inequality
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • Q50 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - General
    • Q52 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Pollution Control Adoption and Costs; Distributional Effects; Employment Effects
    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming
    • Q58 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Government Policy

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