EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

Air pollution and mortality impacts of coal mining: Evidence from coalmine accidents in China

Yin Chu, J. Scott Holladay, Yun Qiu, Xian-Liang Tian and Maigeng Zhou

Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 2023, vol. 121, issue C

Abstract: We leverage the timing of coalmine accidents to examine the effect of coal mining on air pollution. Safety regulations mandate that coal mining be suspended if a mine experiences an accident with 10 or more fatalities. We use a stacked difference-in-differences approach to compare counties with an accident to those experiencing an accident more than two years earlier or later. We provide evidence that the timing of accidents cannot be predicted. Next, we combine satellite-based air pollution data at the county-day level with the dates of accidents to show that on average, suspending coal mining reduces local air pollution by 8%. Changes in the level of coal consumption do not drive this reduction. We also find significant decreases in respiratory mortality after suspending coal mining with particularly large effects on vulnerable populations.

Keywords: Air pollution; Coal mining; Coalmine accidents; Health impacts (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I10 Q40 Q53 R11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0095069623000645
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jeeman:v:121:y:2023:i:c:s0095069623000645

DOI: 10.1016/j.jeem.2023.102846

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Environmental Economics and Management is currently edited by M.A. Cole, A. Lange, D.J. Phaneuf, D. Popp, M.J. Roberts, M.D. Smith, C. Timmins, Q. Weninger and A.J. Yates

More articles in Journal of Environmental Economics and Management from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu (repec@elsevier.com).

 
Page updated 2024-12-28
Handle: RePEc:eee:jeeman:v:121:y:2023:i:c:s0095069623000645