Urban Development and Air Pollution: Evidence from a Global Panel of Cities

Christian Hilber and Charles Palmer

SERC Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Performance, LSE

Abstract: We exploit a unique panel of 75 metro areas ('cities') across the globe and employ a city-fixed effects model to identify the determinants of within-city changes in air pollution concentration between 2005 and 2011. Increasing car and population densities significantly reduce air pollution concentration in city centers where air pollution induced health risks are greatest. These effects are largely confined to cities in non-OECD countries. Two possible mechanisms for the negative effect of car density are explored: (i) increasing car density permits a decentralization of residential and economic activity; and (ii) car usage substitutes for motorbike usage. We find limited evidence in favour of (i) and no evidence in favour of (ii). We also observe a complex relationship between income and pollution concentration as well as a general downward-trend in pollution concentration over time. Overall, our findings are indicative that densely populated polycentric cities may be 'greener' and 'healthier' than comparable monocentric ones.

Keywords: Urbanization; urban form; decentralization; air pollution; transport; built environment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q01 Q53 R11 R41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene, nep-env, nep-res and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Urban development and air pollution: evidence from a globalpanel of cities (2014)
Working Paper: Urban development and air pollution: Evidence from a global panel of cities (2014)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cep:sercdp:0169

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