Impact of Air Pollution (PM 2.5 ) on Child Mortality: Evidence from Sixteen Asian Countries

Asim Anwar, Inayat Ullah, Mustafa Younis and Antoine Flahault
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Asim Anwar: Department of Management Sciences, COMSATS University Islamabad, Attock Campus Kamra Road, Attock 43600, Pakistan
Inayat Ullah: Department of Government and Public Policy, National University of Science & Technology, Islamabad 44000, Pakistan
Mustafa Younis: Department of Health Policy & Management, Jackson State University, Jackson, MS 39217, USA
Antoine Flahault: Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), 8001 Zurich, Switzerland

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 12, 1-13

Abstract: Air pollution in Asian countries represents one of the biggest health threats given the varied levels of economic and population growth in the recent past. The quantification of air pollution (PM 2.5 ) vis à vis health problems has important policy implications in tackling its health effects. This paper investigates the relationship between air pollution (PM 2.5 ) and child mortality in sixteen Asian countries using panel data from 2000 to 2017. We adopt a two-stage least squares approach that exploits variations in PM 2.5 attributable to economic growth in estimating the effect on child mortality. We find that a one-unit annual increase in PM 2.5 leads to a nearly 14.5% increase in the number of children dying before the age of five, suggesting the severity of the effects of particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) on health outcomes in sixteen Asian countries considered in this study. The results of this study suggest the need for strict policy interventions by governments in Asian countries to reduce PM 2.5 concentration alongside environment-friendly policies for economic growth.

Keywords: air pollution; child mortality; economic growth; Asian countries (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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