IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/wpaper/hal-04106196.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

How large are the costs of local pollution emitted by freight vehicles? Insights from the COVID-19 lockdown in Paris

Author

Listed:
  • Lucie Letrouit

    (AME-SPLOTT - Systèmes Productifs, Logistique, Organisation des Transports et Travail - Université Gustave Eiffel)

  • Martin Koning

    (AME-SPLOTT - Systèmes Productifs, Logistique, Organisation des Transports et Travail - Université Gustave Eiffel)

Abstract

Building on the exogenous shock linked with the first COVID-19 lockdown in France (March-May 2020), we propose an original approach relying on econometric modelling to estimate the impacts of road freight transport on the concentration of NO2, NOx and PM10 in Paris. We argue that this shock led to a significant change in the composition of road traffic, with an increase in the relative share of freight vehicles with respect to passenger cars, due to the combined exodus of numerous inhabitants, the prohibition of non-mandatory trips and the promotion of home-deliveries. As light-duty vehicles and trucks pollute more than passenger cars, we hypothesize that it led to a rise in the average emissions of pollutants per kilometer traveled in Paris. We confirm this assumption by applying a simple econometric analysis to a rich dataset containing hourly pollutant concentrations and hourly traffic flows recorded in various locations of the French capital city. Relying on the econometric results and on additional back-of-theenvelope computations, we propose tentative estimates of the health impacts of road freight transport. As compared to a counterfactual in which freight traffic in Paris would have declined in the same proportion as cars during the sanitary crisis, hence resulting in a larger decrease in pollutants concentrations, we conclude that around 7 lives have been lost. Crossing this estimate with the official value of statistical life in France, our central scenario approximates at 0.20 euro/km the excess external cost of the local pollution emitted by freight vehicles as compared to cars.

Suggested Citation

  • Lucie Letrouit & Martin Koning, 2023. "How large are the costs of local pollution emitted by freight vehicles? Insights from the COVID-19 lockdown in Paris," Working Papers hal-04106196, HAL.
  • Handle: RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-04106196
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-04106196
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://hal.science/hal-04106196/document
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Calthrop, Edward & Maddison, David, 1996. "The dose--response function approach to modelling the health effects of air pollution," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 24(7), pages 599-607, July.
    2. A. Godzinski & M. Suarez Castillo, 2021. "Disentangling the effects of air pollutants with many instruments," Documents de Travail de l'Insee - INSEE Working Papers g2021-04, Institut National de la Statistique et des Etudes Economiques.
    3. Dablanc, Laetitia & Heitz, Adeline & Buldeo Rai, Heleen & Diziain, Diana, 2022. "Response to COVID-19 lockdowns from urban freight stakeholders: An analysis from three surveys in 2020 in France, and policy implications," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 85-94.
    4. Pourrahmani, Elham & Jaller, Miguel, 2021. "Crowdshipping in last mile deliveries: Operational challenges and research opportunities," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    5. Guthrie, Cameron & Fosso-Wamba, Samuel & Arnaud, Jean Brice, 2021. "Online consumer resilience during a pandemic: An exploratory study of e-commerce behavior before, during and after a COVID-19 lockdown," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    6. Godzinski, Alexandre & Suarez Castillo, Milena, 2021. "Disentangling the effects of air pollutants with many instruments," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    7. Samakovlis, Eva & Huhtala, Anni & Bellander, Tom & Svartengren, Magnus, 2005. "Valuing health effects of air pollution--Focus on concentration-response functions," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(2), pages 230-249, September.
    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. Hu, Hui & Qi, Shaozhou & Chen, Yuanzhi, 2023. "Using green technology for a better tomorrow: How enterprises and government utilize the carbon trading system and incentive policies," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    2. Evangelina Dardati & Ramiro de Elejalde & Eugenio Giolito, 2024. "On the short‐term impact of pollution: The effect of PM 2.5 on emergency room visits," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(3), pages 482-508, March.
    3. Pham, Linh & Roach, Travis, 2023. "Particulate pollution and learning," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    4. Pahwa, Anmol & Jaller, Miguel, 2023. "Assessing last-mile distribution resilience under demand disruptions," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    5. Nie, Pu-yan & Wang, Chan & Wen, Hong-xing, 2021. "Horizontal mergers under uniform resource constraints," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    6. Mireille Chiroleu-Assouline & Mouez Fodha, 2011. "Environmental Tax and the Distribution of Income among Heterogeneous Workers," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 103-104, pages 71-92.
    7. Ana Bricia Galindo-Muro & Riccardo Cespi & Stephany Isabel Vallarta-Serrano, 2023. "Applications of Electric Vehicles in Instant Deliveries," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(4), pages 1-18, February.
    8. He, Shan & Dai, Ying & Ma, Zu-Jun, 2023. "To offer or not to offer? The optimal value-insured strategy for crowdsourced delivery platforms," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    9. Julia Mink, 2024. "Putting a Price Tag on Air Pollution: The Social Healthcare Costs of Air Pollution in France," ECONtribute Discussion Papers Series 320, University of Bonn and University of Cologne, Germany.
    10. Qiu, Yun & Liu, Yunning & Shi, Wei & Zhou, Maigeng, 2024. "The impact of ozone pollution on mortality: Evidence from China," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    11. Janina SÜRKEN & Sören SUNDERMANN, 2021. ""Online Touchpoints Matter!" - An Empirical Analysis of Consumer-Brand Relationships in Retail Settings," Journal of Emerging Trends in Marketing and Management, The Bucharest University of Economic Studies, vol. 1(1), pages 77-87, August.
    12. INOUE Hiroyasu & TODO Yasuyuki, 2022. "Has COVID-19 Permanently Changed Online Consumption Behavior?," Discussion papers 22018, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    13. Lagravinese, R. & Moscone, F. & Tosetti, E. & Lee, H., 2014. "The impact of air pollution on hospital admissions: Evidence from Italy," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 278-285.
    14. D’Souza, Clare & Apaolaza, Vanessa & Hartmann, Patrick & Nguyen, Ninh, 2023. "The consequence of possessions: Self-identity, extended self, psychological ownership and probabilities of purchase for pet’s fashion clothing," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    15. Branca Barbosa & José Duarte Santos, 2023. "Bibliometric Study on the Social Shopping Concept," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-21, September.
    16. Mireille Chiroleu-Assouline & Mouez Fodha, 2011. "Verdissement de la fiscalité. À qui profite le double dividende ?," Revue de l'OFCE, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 0(1), pages 409-431.
    17. Jiang, Yi & Wang, Xueqin & Yuen, Kum Fai, 2021. "Augmented reality shopping application usage: The influence of attitude, value, and characteristics of innovation," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    18. Zhang, Dianfeng & Shen, Zifan & Li, Yanlai, 2023. "Requirement analysis and service optimization of multiple category fresh products in online retailing using importance-Kano analysis," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    19. Jaller, Miguel & Pahwa, Anmol, 2023. "Coping with the Rise of E-commerce Generated Home Deliveries through Innovative Last-mile Technologies and Strategies," Institute of Transportation Studies, Working Paper Series qt5t76x0kh, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Davis.
    20. Das, Manoj & Ramalingam, Mahesh, 2022. "What drives product involvement and satisfaction with OFDs amid COVID-19?," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Road freight traffic; Air pollution; Covid-19 lockdown; Health; External cost;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:hal:wpaper:hal-04106196. 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: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    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.