How Does Environmental Information Disclosure Affect Public Health? Evidence from the New Ambient Air Quality Standards

Xiang Zhang, Yanan Wang, Zongyi Zhang and Hongyu Long ()
Additional contact information
Xiang Zhang: Accounting School, Chongqing University of Technology, Chongqing 400054, China
Yanan Wang: Accounting School, Chongqing University of Technology, Chongqing 400054, China
Zongyi Zhang: School of Economics and Business Administration, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400030, China
Hongyu Long: Nanyang Technopreneurship Centre, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 639798, Singapore

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 22, 1-20

Abstract: Using a quasi-natural experiment of the implementation of the new Ambient Air Quality Standards in China, this paper assessed the impact of environmental information disclosure on public health. Our empirical results showed that environmental information disclosure (EID) largely improved both physical health and mental health. Moreover, we further investigated the air pollution channel, and the empirical results showed that EID could reduce the concentration of PM 2.5 , which could cause an increase in public health as the concentration of PM 2.5 decreases. In addition, in terms of individual characteristics, the impact of EID was larger for men, people living in the countryside and people older than 60. In terms of the heterogeneity of cities, the impact of EID was larger in cities with higher public environmental concerns, and the impact of EID was more pronounced in core cities. For regional heterogeneity, the impact of EID on physical health was more pronounced in more developed regions, whereas the impact EID on mental health was higher in less developed regions.

Keywords: Ambient Air Quality Standards; environmental information disclosure; public health; mental health; physical health (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/22/15141/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/22/15141/ (text/html)

Related works:
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:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:22:p:15141-:d:975027

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().