IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/idb/brikps/12468.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Estimating the effect of urban road congestion on air quality in Latin America

Author

Listed:
  • Bedoya-Maya, Felipe
  • Calatayud, Agustina
  • González Mejia, Vileydy

Abstract

Road congestion and air pollution are key challenges for quality of life in urban settings. This research leverages highly disaggregated crowdsourced data from Latin America to study the effect of road congestion on levels of carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, and particulate matter in four of the most congested cities in developing countries: Bogota, Buenos Aires, Mexico City, and Santiago. Based on a panel data econometric approach with over 4.4 billion records from Waze and hourly data from 54 air monitoring stations for 2019, our two-stage least square model shows a cumulative increase of 0.6% in response to a 1% of road congestion on the three air pollutants. Moreover, we find a nonlinear relationship between road congestion and air quality and estimate the threshold above which the effect decays. This study provides evidence that supports public policies designed to make urban mobility more sustainable by implementing measures to reduce road congestion in developing contexts.

Suggested Citation

  • Bedoya-Maya, Felipe & Calatayud, Agustina & González Mejia, Vileydy, 2022. "Estimating the effect of urban road congestion on air quality in Latin America," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 12468, Inter-American Development Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:idb:brikps:12468
    DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18235/0004512
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://publications.iadb.org/publications/english/document/Estimating-the-effect-of-urban-road-congestion-on-air-quality-in-Latin-America.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/http://dx.doi.org/10.18235/0004512?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nano Barahona & Francisco A Gallego & Juan-Pablo Montero, 2020. "Vintage-Specific Driving Restrictions," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 87(4), pages 1646-1682.
    2. Wang, Yacan & Geng, Kexin & May, Anthony D. & Zhou, Huiyu, 2022. "The impact of traffic demand management policy mix on commuter travel choices," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 74-87.
    3. Higgins, Christopher D. & Adams, Matthew D. & Réquia, Weeberb J. & Mohamed, Moataz, 2019. "Accessibility, air pollution, and congestion: Capturing spatial trade-offs from agglomeration in the property market," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 177-191.
    4. Sam Heft-Neal & Jennifer Burney & Eran Bendavid & Marshall Burke, 2018. "Robust relationship between air quality and infant mortality in Africa," Nature, Nature, vol. 559(7713), pages 254-258, July.
    5. A. Colin Cameron & Pravin K. Trivedi, 2010. "Microeconometrics Using Stata, Revised Edition," Stata Press books, StataCorp LP, number musr.
    6. Santiago Sánchez González & Felipe Bedoya-Maya & Agustina Calatayud, 2021. "Understanding the Effect of Traffic Congestion on Accidents Using Big Data," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(13), pages 1-19, July.
    7. Geroliminis, Nikolas & Daganzo, Carlos F., 2008. "Existence of urban-scale macroscopic fundamental diagrams: Some experimental findings," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 42(9), pages 759-770, November.
    8. J. Lelieveld & J. S. Evans & M. Fnais & D. Giannadaki & A. Pozzer, 2015. "The contribution of outdoor air pollution sources to premature mortality on a global scale," Nature, Nature, vol. 525(7569), pages 367-371, September.
    9. Baltagi, Badi H. & Wu, Ping X., 1999. "Unequally Spaced Panel Data Regressions With Ar(1) Disturbances," Econometric Theory, Cambridge University Press, vol. 15(6), pages 814-823, December.
    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. Durrmeyer, Isis & Martinez, Nicolas, 2022. "The Welfare Consequences of Urban Traffic Regulations," TSE Working Papers 22-1378, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE), revised Dec 2024.
    2. Chen, Xiao & Guo, Gangxing, 2024. "Air pollution and online lender behavior: Evidence from Chinese peer-to-peer lending," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C).
    3. Fageda, Xavier & Flores-Fillol, Ricardo & Theilen, Bernd, 2022. "Price versus quantity measures to deal with pollution and congestion in urban areas: A political economy approach," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    4. Bernardo, Valeria & Fageda, Xavier & Flores-Fillol, Ricardo, 2021. "Pollution and congestion in urban areas: The effects of low emission zones," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 26.
    5. Tassinari, Filippo, 2024. "Low emission zones and traffic congestion: Evidence from Madrid Central," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 185(C).
    6. Xiaodan Hu & Pedro Villarreal, 2019. "Public Tuition on the Rise: Estimating the Effects of Louisiana’s Performance-Based Funding Policy on Institutional Tuition Levels," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 60(5), pages 636-669, August.
    7. Thomas Y. Mathä & Alessandro Porpiglia & Michael Ziegelmeyer, 2014. "Wealth differences across borders and the effect of real estate price dynamics: Evidence from two household surveys," BCL working papers 90, Central Bank of Luxembourg.
    8. Giuliani, Elisa & Martinelli, Arianna & Rabellotti, Roberta, 2016. "Is Co-Invention Expediting Technological Catch Up? A Study of Collaboration between Emerging Country Firms and EU Inventors," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 192-205.
    9. Jarle Aarstad & Olav Andreas Kvitastein & Stig-Erik Jakobsen, 2019. "What Drives Enterprise Product Innovation? Assessing How Regional, National, And International Inter-Firm Collaboration Complement Or Substitute For R&D Investments," International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 23(05), pages 1-25, June.
    10. Mary Amiti & Jozef Konings, 2007. "Trade Liberalization, Intermediate Inputs, and Productivity: Evidence from Indonesia," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 97(5), pages 1611-1638, December.
    11. Babigumira, Ronnie & Angelsen, Arild & Buis, Maarten & Bauch, Simone & Sunderland, Terry & Wunder, Sven, 2014. "Forest Clearing in Rural Livelihoods: Household-Level Global-Comparative Evidence," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 64(S1), pages 67-79.
    12. Martin, Philippe & Mayer, Thierry & Mayneris, Florian, 2011. "Public support to clusters: A firm level study of French "Local Productive Systems"," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(2), pages 108-123, March.
    13. Arnott, Richard & Inci, Eren, 2010. "The stability of downtown parking and traffic congestion," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(3), pages 260-276, November.
    14. Ding Lu, 2002. "Sectoral Factor Reallocation And Productivity Growth: Recent Trends In The Chinese Economy," Journal of Economic Development, Chung-Ang Unviersity, Department of Economics, vol. 27(2), pages 95-111, December.
    15. Ayhan, Fatih & Elal, Onuray, 2023. "The IMPACTS of technological change on employment: Evidence from OECD countries with panel data analysis," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    16. Ghimire, Narishwar & Woodward, Richard T., 2013. "Under- and over-use of pesticides: An international analysis," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 73-81.
    17. Lanzi, Elisa & Dellink, Rob & Chateau, Jean, 2018. "The sectoral and regional economic consequences of outdoor air pollution to 2060," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 89-113.
    18. Mollah, Sabur & Zaman, Mahbub, 2015. "Shari’ah supervision, corporate governance and performance: Conventional vs. Islamic banks," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 418-435.
    19. Héctor Jorquera & Ana María Villalobos, 2020. "Combining Cluster Analysis of Air Pollution and Meteorological Data with Receptor Model Results for Ambient PM 2.5 and PM 10," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(22), pages 1-25, November.
    20. Okui, Ryo, 2009. "Testing serial correlation in fixed effects regression models based on asymptotically unbiased autocorrelation estimators," Mathematics and Computers in Simulation (MATCOM), Elsevier, vol. 79(9), pages 2897-2909.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Congestion; Air quality; Latin America; Pollution;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • R41 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Transportation Economics - - - Transportation: Demand, Supply, and Congestion; Travel Time; Safety and Accidents; Transportation Noise
    • O18 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Urban, Rural, Regional, and Transportation Analysis; Housing; Infrastructure
    • L91 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Transportation: General
    • Q01 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - General - - - Sustainable Development

    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:idb:brikps:12468. 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: Felipe Herrera Library (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iadbbus.html .

    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.