Essays on Fine Particulate Matter, Health and Socioeconomic Factors in China

Abstract

The thesis contains three empirical essays that investigate the relationship between air pollution, economic growth, and health in China.

The first chapter investigates the relationship between air pollution and economic growth, based on Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC). We examine the EKC hypothesis based on data in Beijing from 2008 to 2017, with quarterly data. Land use and dummy variables for seasons are controlled. The results confirm an “N” shaped EKC in Beijing, with the first turning point at 60,000 RMB and the second point at 132,000 RMB. The “N” shaped EKC indicates that although air pollution is decreasing now, the pressure for the future is high.

The second chapter explores the effects of income and air pollution on health at individual level. The air pollution includes ambient PM 2.5 concentration level, and household air pollution. Ambient concentration comes from official observing sites, and household air pollution is measured with dummy variables on energy consumption and active and negative smoking. The household air quality data, along with data at individual level, comes from micro dataset called CHARLS (Chinese Health and Retirement Longitude Survey), together with socio-economic factors, Probit models are employed to investigate the health effect of income and air pollution, and spatial probit models are also deployed due to the high spatial correlation of air pollution. It is found that the health of individuals is affected by the local air pollution and income, and the pollution from neighbouring cities.

The third chapter focuses on the effect of income, exposure level of air pollution on health. Compared with concentration level, exposure level is a better description of human interaction with air pollution. With the Mass Balance Equation, household air concentration is a function of ambient concentration and emission of household pollutant sources. Two scenarios, window open and closed, are considered due to the difference of air exchange rate and penetration rate. We find that poor lung health is associated with high exposure level and low income in both scenarios. Exposure reduction should not only include the ambient concentration target set by the government, and improvement on the household emissions, such as kitchen extraction and transfer from coal and crop residual to electricity and natural gas.