Racial disparities in the health effects from air pollution: Evidence from ports

Kenneth Gillingham and Pei Huang

No 21-058, ZEW Discussion Papers from ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research

Abstract: This study examines the uneven effects of air pollution from maritime ports on physical and mental health across racial groups. We exploit quasi-random variation in vessels in port from weather events far out in the ocean to estimate how port traffic influences air pollution and human health. We find that one additional vessel in a port over a year leads to 3.0 hospital visits per thousand Black residents within 25 miles of the port and only 1.0 per thousand for whites. We assess a port-related environmental regulation and show that the policy can help alleviate racial inequalities in health outcomes.

Keywords: air pollution; health; environmental justice; quasi-experiment; instrumental variables; regression discontinuity design (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D63 I14 Q51 Q53 Q58 R41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene and nep-env
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Racial Disparities in the Health Effects from Air Pollution: Evidence from Ports (2021)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:zewdip:21058

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