Air Pollution Exposure and COVID-19

Matthew Cole, Ceren Ozgen and Eric Strobl ()

No 13367, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: In light of the existing preliminary evidence of a link between Covid-19 and poor air quality, which is largely based upon correlations, we estimate the relationship between long term air pollution exposure and Covid-19 in 355 municipalities in the Netherlands. Using detailed secondary and administrative data we find compelling evidence of a positive relationship between air pollution, and particularly PM2.5 concentrations, and Covid-19 cases, hospital admissions and deaths. This relationship persists after controlling for a wide range of explanatory variables. Our results indicate that a 1 μ/m3 increase in PM2.5 concentrations is associated with 9.4 more Covid-19 cases, 3.0 more hospital admissions, and 2.3 more deaths. The relationship between Covid-19 and air pollution withstands a number of sensitivity and robustness exercises including instrumenting pollution to mitigate potential endogeneity and modelling spatial spillovers using spatial econometric techniques.

Keywords: Netherlands; air pollution; COVID-19; spatial spillovers (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I21 I23 Q53 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 31 pages
Date: 2020-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene, nep-env and nep-ure
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (48)

Published - published as 'Air Pollution Exposure and Covid-19 in Dutch Municipalities' in: Environmental and Resource Economics, 2020, 76, 581-610

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Working Paper: Air Pollution Exposure and Covid-19 (2020)
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