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The Impact of Ambient Air Pollution on Hospital Admissions

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Abstract

Ambient air pollution is the environmental factor with the greatest impact on human health. Several epidemiological studies provide evidence for an association between ambient air pollution and human health. However, the recent economic literature has challenged the identification strategy used in these studies. This paper contributes to the ongoing discussion by investigating the association between ambient air pollution and morbidity using hospital admission data from Switzerland. Our identification strategy rests on the construction of geographically explicit pollution measures derived from a dispersion model that replicates atmospheric conditions and accounts for several emission sources. The reduced form estimates account for location and time fixed effects and show that ambient air pollution is strongly correlated with hospital admissions. In particular, we find that SO2 and NO2 are positively associated with admission rates for coronary artery and cerebrovascular diseases. As a robustness check, we adopt instrumental variable methods to account for the possible endogeneity of pollution measures. These results may contribute to a more accurate evaluation of future environmental policies aiming at a reduction of ambient air pollution exposure.

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  • Massimo Filippini & Giuliano Masiero & Sandro Steinbach, 2017. "The Impact of Ambient Air Pollution on Hospital Admissions," CER-ETH Economics working paper series 17/279, CER-ETH - Center of Economic Research (CER-ETH) at ETH Zurich.
    • Handle: RePEc:eth:wpswif:17-279
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    Cited by:

    1. Laure de Preux & Dheeya Rizmie & Daniela Fecht & John Gulliver & Weiyi Wang, 2023. "Does It Measure Up? A Comparison of Pollution Exposure Assessment Techniques Applied across Hospitals in England," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(5), pages 1-26, February.
    2. Omar Portela Dos Santos & Pauline Melly & Stéphane Joost & Henk Verloo, 2023. "Climate Change, Environmental Health, and Challenges for Nursing Discipline," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(9), pages 1-12, April.
    3. Giaccherini, Matilde & Kopinska, Joanna & Palma, Alessandro, 2021. "When particulate matter strikes cities: Social disparities and health costs of air pollution," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    4. Chen, Fanglin & Zhang, Xin & Chen, Zhongfei, 2023. "Air pollution and mental health: Evidence from China Health and Nutrition Survey," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    5. Kong, Dongmin & Liang, Junwei & Liu, Chenhao, 2022. "Invisible enemy: The health impact of ozone," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    6. Masiero, Giuliano & Steinbach, Sandro, 2020. "Happy Pills? Mental Health Effects of the Dramatic Increase of Antidepressant Use," IZA Discussion Papers 13727, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Clifford Afoakwah & Son Nghiem & Paul Scuffham & Quan Huynh & Tom Marwick & Joshua Byrnes, 2020. "Impacts of air pollution on health: evidence from longitudinal cohort data of patients with cardiovascular diseases," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 21(7), pages 1025-1038, September.
    8. Mariia Murasheva & Maria A. Cunha-e-Sa, 2022. "The impact of industrial pollution exposure on hospital admissions: Evidence from a cement plant in Russia," Nova SBE Working Paper Series wp652, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Nova School of Business and Economics.
    9. A. Godzinski & M. Suarez Castillo, 2019. "Short-term health effects of public transport disruptions: air pollution and viral spread channels," Documents de Travail de l'Insee - INSEE Working Papers g2019-03, Institut National de la Statistique et des Etudes Economiques.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Ambient air pollution; dispersion model; hospital admissions; count panel data;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General
    • Q51 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Valuation of Environmental Effects
    • Q53 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Air Pollution; Water Pollution; Noise; Hazardous Waste; Solid Waste; Recycling

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