Ecologically unequal exchange and disparate death rates attributable to air pollution: A comparative study of 169 countries from 1991 to 2017

Ambient air pollution is among the most pressing environmental problems in our contemporary world that poses significant risks to global ecological and public health. This study analyzes cross-national heterogeneities in trajectories of death rates attributable to ambient air pollution. Compiling panel data from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study, the Direction of Trade Statistics (DOTS), and the World Development Indicators, we create a dataset that tracks 169 countries from 1991 to 2017. Using growth curve models (GCMs), we estimate country-specific trajectories of death rates attributable to air pollution, and condition them on time-invariant and time-varying independent variables. The results suggest that while the global death rate attributable to air pollution has been continuously decreasing, there are heterogeneities in countries’ death rate trajectories based on their geographic location and position in the world economy. High-income countries of the global North have perpetually witnessed lower death rates attributable to air pollution compared to middle- and low-income countries of the global South. Moreover, our results indicate that increased export to high-income countries, as a proxy for ecologically unequal exchange, leads to higher death rates from air pollution in middle- and low-income countries.