Can Smartphone App Trainings Help Reduce Exposure to Air Pollution? Experimental Evidence from Bogotá

Allen Blackman and Bridget Hoffmann

Land Economics, 2025, vol. 101, issue 4, 499-520

Abstract: We conduct a randomized controlled trial to evaluate the impact of training university students in Bogotá to use a smartphone app that displays real-time, location-specific air quality data. The training increased participants’ acquisition of information about air quality, their knowledge about avoidance behavior, and, most important, their reported avoidance behavior. Back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest that if scaled to the entire city of Bogotá, the training could reduce premature cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, and respiratory deaths by 51%–61% a year among the additional 3%–8% of the city’s population incentivized to undertake avoidance behavior, a benefit valued at US$11–$13 million.

JEL-codes: Q53 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
Note: DOI: https://doi.org/10.3368/le.101.4.030724-0022R1
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:uwp:landec:v:101:y:2025:i:4:p:499-520

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