Why are pollution damages lower in developed countries? Insights from high income, high-particulate matter Hong Kong

Jonathan Colmer (), Dajun Lin, Siying Liu and Jay Shimshack

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: Conventional wisdom suggests that pollution damages are high in less-developed countries because they are highly polluted. Using administrative data on the universe of births and deaths, we explore the morbidity and mortality effects of gestational particulate matter exposure in high-pollution yet highly-developed Hong Kong. The effects of particulates on birthweight are large. We estimate no effect of particulates on neonatal mortality. We interpret our stark mortality results in a comparative analysis of pollution-mortality relationships across well-known studies. We provide evidence that mortality damages may be high in less-developed countries because they are less developed, not because they are more polluted.

Keywords: particulate matter; marginal damages; infant health (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q53 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 51 pages
Date: 2020-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-env and nep-hea
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/108466/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Why are pollution damages lower in developed countries? Insights from high-Income, high-particulate matter Hong Kong (2021)
Working Paper: Why Are Pollution Damages Lower in Developed Countries? Insights from High-Income, High-Particulate Matter Hong Kong (2021)
Working Paper: Why Are Pollution Damages Lower in Developed Countries? Insights from High-Income, High-Particulate Matter Hong Kong (2021)
Working Paper: Why are pollution damages lower in developed countries? Insights from high income, high-particulate matter Hong Kong (2020)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:108466

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