The impact of air pollution on petcare utilization

Olivier Deschenes, Stephen Jarvis, Akshaya Jha and Alan D Radford

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: There is a large literature documenting the adverse impacts of air pollution on human health. In contrast, there is a paucity of research studying the effects of air pollution on animal health. We fill this gap, utilizing five years of data on over seven million visits to veterinary practices across the United Kingdom. Leveraging within-city variation in daily monitor-measured air pollution levels, we find that increases in fine particulate matter (i.e., PM2.5) lead to significant increases in the number of vet visits for both cats and dogs. In aggregate, these estimates indicate that reducing ambient PM2.5 levels to a maximum of 5µg/m3 as recommended by the World Health Organization would result in eighty thousand fewer vet visits each year (a 0.4% reduction).

Keywords: pets; air pollution; animal health (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I00 Q51 Q53 Q57 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 37 pages
Date: 2024-10-17
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:128526

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