Vehicle exhaust standards and urban air quality in China

Li Shu, Chunhua Wang and Wei Wang

Journal of Development Economics, 2025, vol. 172, issue C

Abstract: This study quantifies the effects of increasing the share of low-emission passenger vehicles on urban air quality in China. We estimate a two-stage least squares model, using the phased implementation of National Vehicle Emission Standards VI in 2019 as an instrumental variable for fleet composition. Our findings indicate that a 1% increase in the share of vehicles compliant with the stricter vehicle exhaust standards leads to a 0.083% reduction in the average pollutant concentration across three measures of air pollution. Furthermore, our calculation suggests that the monetized health benefits from reductions in particulate matter outweigh the costs of adhering to stricter exhaust standards by a factor of two.

Keywords: Exhaust standard; Vehicle fleet; Air quality; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 O18 Q53 Q58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:deveco:v:172:y:2025:i:c:s0304387824001366

DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2024.103387

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