Social cost of lifestyle adaptation: Air pollution and outdoor physical exercise

Yichun Fan

Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 2024, vol. 127, issue C

Abstract: The social cost of environmental hazards depends on the well-being impacts of both exposure and adaptation. While the monetary expenditure of adaptation is increasingly considered, little research assesses the social cost associated with non-market lifestyle adaptation. Based on a longitudinal database of 27 million exercise records of 243,395 Chinese residents, I present evidence that urbanites limit their outdoor physical exercise in response to air pollution. Employing imported pollution from upwind cities as instrumental variable, I estimate that heavy air pollution leads to a 28% reduction in urbanites’ outdoor exercise likelihood. Information plays a crucial role as behavioral moderator: (i) Outdoor exercise rate plummets at the “heavy pollution” threshold and during the issuance of alerts; (ii) Residents in well-educated neighborhoods exhibit more than double the responsiveness to air pollution and alerts due to their greater awareness of pollution-related health risks. I discuss the health costs associated with this adaptation behavior and policy implications.

Keywords: Air pollution; Adaptation behavior; Information policy; Physical activity; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jeeman:v:127:y:2024:i:c:s0095069624001165

DOI: 10.1016/j.jeem.2024.103042

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