 The effect of forest on PM2.5 concentrations: A spatial panel approachYing Lin, Xiuyun Yang, Yanan Li and Shunbo Yao Forest Policy and Economics, 2020, vol. 118, issue C Abstract: Spatial relationships between forest and PM2.5 concentrations are of great policy implications in regional afforestation layout and air pollution control. This paper investigates the transboundary externality of a city’s forest on the concentrations of PM2.5 in different city segments. Employing a mixed-regressive spatial panel model with data for 255 Chinese cities over 2000 to 2015, we find that the concentrations of PM2.5 tend to be substantially lower in cities with larger forest area and the depositing effect of forest spills over significantly to neighboring cities. A one percentage increase in forest area reduces the average annual concentrations of PM2.5 by 2.53%, of which 76% is contributed to the spillover effect. Moreover, the average marginal effect of forest on PM2.5 concentrations exhibits an inverted-U relationship with wind speed and the depositing effect minimizes (in magnitude) as the average annual speed of wind approaches to 23 kilometers per hour. These findings suggest that severe hazing cities with mild wind speed are priority afforestation areas for transboundary air pollution control. Keywords: Forest; PM2.5 concentrations; externality; spillover effect; spatial panel model (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:forpol:v:118:y:2020:i:c:s1389934120300010 DOI: 10.1016/j.forpol.2020.102261 Access Statistics for this article Forest Policy and Economics is currently edited by M. Krott More articles in Forest Policy and Economics from Elsevier |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.