Wednesday 11 April 2007

Valuing the health impacts from particulate air pollution in Tianjin

Apologies for the lack of posts - I have been travelling around East Asia (Singapore and Malaysia) doing some academic research (instead of writing blog posts). The internet, whilst decent over there is still not really quick enough to facilitate blogging at the speed I require to make it worthwhile).

The first post back is Environmental related and relates to a paper written by Richard Tol (a most prolific writer of global warming related papers) and Zhou Yuan.

Valuing the health impacts from particulate air pollution in Tianjin
Date: 2005-09
By: Zhou Yuan
Richard S.J. Tol (Economic and Social Research Institute, Dublin)

URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sgc:wpaper:89&r=env [PDF]

Although China has made dramatic economic progress in recent years, air pollution continues to be the most visible environmental problem and imposes significant health and economic costs on society. Using data on pollutant concentration and population for 2003, this paper estimates the economic costs of health related effects due to particulate air pollution in urban areas of Tianjin, China. Exposure-response functions are used to quantify the impact on human health. Value of a statistical life and benefit transfer are used to obtain the unit value of some health effects. Our results show significant health costs associated with air pollution in Tianjin. The total economic cost is estimated to be US$1.1 billion, about 3.7% of Tianjin’s GDP in 2003. The findings underscore the importance of urban air pollution control. Finally, the policy implications for alternative energy options and climate policies are given.

Keywords: particulate air pollution, PM10, economic valuation, Tianjin
JEL: Q51 Q53

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