Subways and Urban Air Pollution

Nicolas Gendron-Carrier, Marco Gonzalez-Navarro, Stefano Polloni and Matthew Turner

No 24183, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: We investigate the effect of subway system openings on urban air pollution. On average, particulate concentrations are unchanged by subway openings. For cities with higher initial pollution levels, subway openings reduce particulates by 4% in the area surrounding a city center. The effect decays with distance to city center and persists over the longest time horizon that we can measure with our data, about four years. For highly polluted cities, we estimate that a new subway system provides an external mortality benefit of about $1b per year. For less polluted cities, the effect is indistinguishable from zero. Back of the envelope cost estimates suggest that reduced mortality due to lower air pollution offsets a substantial share of the construction costs of subways.

JEL-codes: L91 R11 R14 R4 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene, nep-env, nep-tre and nep-ure
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (34)

Published as Nicolas Gendron-Carrier & Marco Gonzalez-Navarro & Stefano Polloni & Matthew A. Turner, 2022. "Subways and Urban Air Pollution," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, vol 14(1), pages 164-196.

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Journal Article: Subways and Urban Air Pollution (2022)
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