No pain, no gain? Mining pollution and morbidity

Syed Hasan, Odmaa Narantungalag and Martin Berka
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Odmaa Narantungalag: School of Economics and Finance, Massey University, Palmerston North

No 2203, Discussion Papers from School of Economics and Finance, Massey University, New Zealand

Abstract: We investigate the impact of mining pollution on the likelihood of reporting illness by linking geocoded soil pollution information with five rounds of Mongolian Household Socio-Economic Survey data. Using perceived property rent as an instrument, our probit regression results indicate that doubling the distance between a person’s residence and nearest mine reduces their probability of feeling unwell by around 7.4 percentage points on average. Individuals also increase their medical expenditure as a result of increased illness. We observe mining pollution to disproportionately hurt younger children. Artisanal and small-scale mines have stronger effects on human health than medium and large-scale mines. Gold mines were observed to be worst, compared to the mines extracting other types of minerals. Our findings suggest that environmental regulations to control/mitigate mining pollution can reduce short- to long-term health risks of the people living near mines.

Keywords: Mining pollution; Health; Development; Mongolia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I15 O13 Q53 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 65 pages
Date: 2022
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ban, nep-dev, nep-ene and nep-env
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