时间:2017年6月23日 下午14:00开始
地点:邵逸夫科学馆513
题目:Air Pollution, Consumer Spending and Willingness to Pay for Clean Air
主讲人:Shanjun Li (李善军),美国康奈尔大学达森应用经济与管理学院终身职副教授。
主讲人简介:Shanjun Li (李善军),美国康奈尔大学达森应用经济与管理学院终身职副教授,康奈尔大学中国经济研究所主任 (http://china.dyson.cornell.edu), 以及美国国民经济研究局 (NBER) 研究员。 他的研究领域包括环境与能源经济学,产业组织,和应用计量经济学。李善军教授目前担任环境与资源经济学会的主会刊 Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists的共同主编(co-editor), 国际期刊Resource and Energy Economics的副主编(associate editor)。另外,他还是Journal of Environmental Economics and Management的编委会成员(member of the editorial board)。李善军教授本科毕业于南开大学国际经济系,2007年在美国杜克大学取得经济学博士学位。2009至2011年在环境与能源经济学的国际顶级智库-未来资源研究所-担任研究员。
Abstract: Understanding the health impact of air pollution and consumer willingness to pay for clean air (WTP) is critical for understanding the benefit of environmental regulations. Based on the universe of credit and debit card transactions in China, this paper quantifies the health impacts of PM2.5 and estimates consumer WTP for improved air quality. To address the potential endogeneity in air pollution, we construct an IV by leveraging the spatial spillovers of air pollution due to long-range transport. Our analysis shows that PM2.5 has significant impacts on health spending in both short term (within a week) and longer term (within three months). A reduction of 10 mg/m3 in daily PM2.5 would lead to a total annual savings of at least 75 billion yuan ($11 billion) in health spending in China. The estimates suggest a lower bound of annual household WTP of $25 for a 10 mg/m3 reduction in PM2.5. While an increase in PM2.5 would lead to a modest reduction in spending on necessities (food and clothing) and in supermarkets in the short-term, likely due to avoidance behavior, there is no longer term impact on either type of transactions.