Toxic Metal Injustice? Socioeconomic status at birth and exposure to airborne pollution

Oscar Erixson, Jakob Granath, Xiao Hu and Mattias Öhman

Journal of Urban Economics, 2024, vol. 144, issue C

Abstract: We combine administrative data on socioeconomic status (SES) with high-resolution data on residential locations, local pollution levels, industrial facilities, as well as land cover information to investigate whether exposure to airborne toxic metals (arsenic, lead, and mercury) is unequally distributed within the population of newborn children in Sweden. We find that the spatial distribution of SES among newborns weakly correlates with the distribution of toxic metals at the national level and in the largest cities, indicating negligible sorting in this dimension. If anything, high SES children are disproportionately more exposed, residing in urban areas with higher levels of traffic and industrial activities. This leads us to conclude that environmental injustice regarding airborne arsenic, lead, and mercury exposure is not a major concern in Sweden.

Keywords: Toxic metals; Environmental justice; Socioeconomic status; Residential sorting (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I14 I18 I24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:juecon:v:144:y:2024:i:c:s0094119024000779

DOI: 10.1016/j.jue.2024.103707

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