The Short- and Long-Run Impacts of Air Pollution on Human Health: New Evidence from China

Yayun Ren, Jian Yu, Guanglai Zhang, Chang Zhang () and Wenmei Liao ()
Additional contact information
Yayun Ren: School of Economics, Guizhou University of Finance and Economics, Guiyang 550025, China
Jian Yu: School of Economics, Guizhou University of Finance and Economics, Guiyang 550025, China
Guanglai Zhang: School of Economics, Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics, Nanchang 330013, China
Chang Zhang: School of Finances, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, Wuhan 430073, China
Wenmei Liao: School of Economics and Management, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang 330045, China

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 3, 1-23

Abstract: Under the background of the far-reaching impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on global economic development, the interactive effect of economic recovery and pollution rebound makes the research topic of air pollution and human health receive attention again. Matching a series of new datasets and employing thermal inversion as an instrumental variable, this study investigates the physical and mental health effect of air pollution jointly in China. We find that in the short run, the above inference holds for both physical and mental health. These short-run influences are credible after a series of robustness checks and vary with different individual characteristics and geographical locations. We also find that in the long run, air pollution only damages mental health. Finally, this study calculates the health cost of air pollution. The above findings indicate that in China, the effect of air pollution on physical and mental health cannot be ignored. The government needs to consider the heterogeneity and long-run and short-run differences in the health effects of air pollution when formulating corresponding environmental and medical policies.

Keywords: human health; air pollution; thermal inversion; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/3/2385/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/3/2385/ (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:20:y:2023:i:3:p:2385-:d:1050245

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 ().