When Externalities Collide: Influenza and Pollution

Joshua Graff Zivin, Matthew Neidell, Nicholas Sanders and Gregor Singer

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2023, vol. 15, issue 2, 320-51

Abstract: Influenza and air pollution each pose significant health risks with global economic consequences. Their shared etiological pathways present a case of compounding health risk via interacting externalities. Using instrumental variables based on changing wind direction, we show that increased levels of contemporaneous pollution increase influenza hospitalizations. We exploit random variation in effectiveness of the influenza vaccine as an additional instrument to show that vaccine protection neutralizes this relationship. Thus, pollution control and vaccination campaigns jointly provide greater returns than those implied by addressing either in isolation. We show the importance of this consideration in addressing observed gaps in influenza incidence by race.

JEL-codes: D62 I12 J15 Q51 Q53 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/app.20210500 (application/pdf)
https://doi.org/10.3886/E165401V1 (text/html)
https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/app.20210500.appx (application/pdf)
https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/app.20210500.ds (application/zip)
Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.

Related works:
Working Paper: When externalities collide: influenza and pollution (2021)
Working Paper: When Externalities Collide: Influenza and Pollution (2021)
Working Paper: When Externalities Collide: Influenza and Pollution (2020)
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:aea:aejapp:v:15:y:2023:i:2:p:320-51

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.aeaweb.org/journals/subscriptions

DOI: 10.1257/app.20210500

Access Statistics for this article

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics is currently edited by Alexandre Mas

More articles in American Economic Journal: Applied Economics from American Economic Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Michael P. Albert ().