The Changing Nature of Pollution, Income, and Environmental Inequality in the United States

Jonathan Colmer (), Suvy Qin, John Voorheis and Reed Walker

AEA Papers and Proceedings, 2024, vol. 114, 41-46

Abstract: This paper uses tax records linked to administrative Census data and high-resolution measures of air pollution exposure (PM2.5) to study the evolution of the Black-White pollution exposure gap since 1984. We decompose changes in the racial exposure gap into (i) rank-preserving compression of the pollution distribution and (ii) changes stemming from a reordering of Black and White households within the pollution distribution. We find a narrowing of the racial exposure gap that is overwhelmingly driven by rank-preserving changes rather than positional changes. Recently, however, the relative positions of Black and White households in the upper tail of the pollution distribution have converged.

JEL-codes: D63 J15 Q51 Q53 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Related works:
Working Paper: The Changing Nature of Pollution, Income, and Environmental Inequality in the United States (2024)
Working Paper: The changing nature of pollution, income and environmental inequality in the United States (2024)
Working Paper: The Changing Nature of Pollution, Income, and Environmental Inequality in the United States (2024)
Working Paper: The Changing Nature of Pollution, Income, and Environmental Inequality in the United States (2024)
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DOI: 10.1257/pandp.20241010

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