Unintended Effects of Germany’s Nuclear Phase Out: A Rise in Mortality Due to Non-Communicable Respiratory Diseases

Tuomas Kaariaho ()
Additional contact information
Tuomas Kaariaho: Department of Economics and Management, University of Helsinki

Environmental & Resource Economics, 2025, vol. 88, issue 8, No 4, 2085-2123

Abstract: Abstract The discussion on nuclear power balances its risks against carbon emissions resulting from nuclear phase-out. This paper studies an important unintended consequence of abandoning nuclear power: the adverse health effects of increased air pollutants. I use the synthetic control method to study the causal effect of the German nuclear phase-out on mortality. I find that the nuclear plant closures resulted in 17 life years lost each year per 100,000 inhabitants or roughly 170 premature deaths per year from non-communicable respiratory diseases. This effect accounts for an 8% increase in mortality due to respiratory diseases and corresponds to around one billion euros per year in lost lives.

Keywords: Health effects; Public health; Mortality; Air pollution; Nuclear power; Synthetic control method; I12; I18; K32; Q51; Q53 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10640-025-01002-z Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:kap:enreec:v:88:y:2025:i:8:d:10.1007_s10640-025-01002-z

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... al/journal/10640/PS2

DOI: 10.1007/s10640-025-01002-z

Access Statistics for this article

Environmental & Resource Economics is currently edited by Ian J. Bateman

More articles in Environmental & Resource Economics from Springer, European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().