Decompositions and Policy Consequences of an Extraordinary Decline in Air Pollution from Electricity Generation

Stephen Holland, Erin Mansur, Nicholas Muller and Andrew Yates

American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 2020, vol. 12, issue 4, 244-74

Abstract: Using integrated assessment models, we calculate the economic value of the extraordinary decline in emissions from US power plants. Annual local and global air pollution damages fell from 245 to 133 billion USD over 2010–2017. Decomposition shows changes in emission rates and generation shares among coal and gas plants account for more of this decline than changes in renewable generation, electricity consumption, and damage valuations. Econometrically estimated marginal damages declined in the East from 8.6 to 6 cents per kWh. Marginal damages increased slightly in the West and Texas. These estimates indicate electric vehicles are now cleaner on average than gasoline vehicles.

JEL-codes: H23 L94 Q53 Q58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (23)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/pol.20190390 (application/pdf)
https://doi.org/10.3886/E112172V1 (text/html)
https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/pol.20190390.appx (application/pdf)
https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/pol.20190390.ds (application/zip)
Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.

Related works:
Working Paper: Decompositions and Policy Consequences of an Extraordinary Decline in Air Pollution from Electricity Generation (2018)
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:aejpol:v:12:y:2020:i:4:p:244-74

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

DOI: 10.1257/pol.20190390

Access Statistics for this article

American Economic Journal: Economic Policy is currently edited by Matthew Shapiro

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