Conservation Co-Benefits from Air Pollution Regulation: Evidence from Birds

Yuanning Liang, Ivan J. Rudik, Eric Zou, Alison Johnston, Amanda D. Rodewald and Catherine Kling

No 27415, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Massive wildlife losses over the past 50 years have brought new urgency to identifying both the drivers of population decline and potential solutions. We provide the first large-scale evidence that air pollution, specifically ozone, is associated with declines in bird abundance in the United States. We show that an air pollution regulation limiting ozone precursors emissions has delivered substantial benefits to bird conservation. Our estimates imply that air quality improvements over the past four decades have stemmed the decline in bird populations, averting the loss of 1.5 billion birds, approximately 20 percent of current totals. Our results highlight that in addition to protecting human health, air pollution regulations have previously unrecognized and unquantified conservation co-benefits.

JEL-codes: Q53 Q57 Q58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-ene and nep-env
Note: EEE
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Published as PNAS December 8, 2020 117 (49) 30900-30906

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