Local environmental quality and life-satisfaction in Germany

Hitherto the task of valuing differences in environmental quality arising from air pollution and noise nuisance has been carried out mainly by using the hedonic price technique. This paper proposes a different approach to derive information on individual preferences for local environmental quality. It analyses data drawn from the German socio-economic panel in an attempt to explain differences in self-reported levels of well-being in terms of environmental quality. Mindful of existing research a large number of other explanatory variables are included to control for socio-demographic differences, economic circumstances as well as neighbourhood characteristics. Differences in local air quality and noise levels are measured by how much an individual feels affected by air pollution or noise exposure in their residential area. The evidence suggests that even when controlling for a range of other factors higher local air pollution and noise levels significantly diminish subjective well-being. But interestingly differences in perceived air and noise pollution are not capitalised into differences in house prices.     

我国经济发展与环境污染空间分布关系的实证检验

本文提出了一种新的分析重心移动的方法,即根据区域属性值的特征量来分析重心移动。本文应用这种方法,对1985年至2009年期间我国环境污染重心移动的轨迹、原因及影响因素进行了理论与实证分析。研究结果发现：我国环境污染重心与相应污染变量、环境污染影响因素的总量和方差之间存在显著影响关系,而与相应污染变量、环境污染影响因素的变化速度之间的影响关系不显著。本文的研究结论对于有效管理我国环境污染、提升经济发展质量具有重要的意义。     

新疆环境污染的实物量核算评价分析

通过定量分析的方法,研究新疆经济与环境状况及其发展的可持续性,试图得到新疆2006年的水污染、大气污染、固体废物污染的实物量损失,从而算出新疆2006年经济增长的环境代价。通过研究,为新疆经济与环境发展的可持续性评估提供理论参考。     

The Effect of Risk Context on the Value of a Statistical Life: a Bayesian Meta-model

This paper presents the first value of statistical life (VSL) meta-analysis that empirically estimates correction factors for ‘out of context’ benefits transfer (BT) purposes. In the field of mortality risk reductions elicited willingness to pay values in one risk context, say road safety, are frequently applied in other risk contexts like air pollution. However, differences in risk perception and the population at risk across contexts are likely to result in diverging VSL estimates. In a meta-analysis of 26 international stated preference studies, a Bayesian model is estimated regressing contingent values for mortality risk reductions, originating from three different risk contexts, on the characteristics of the risk reduction itself and additional variables characterizing the underlying studies. A willingness to pay (WTP) premium for mortality risk reductions in the air pollution and general mortality risk context relative to improving road safety is observed. Evaluated at the mean, road safety VSL estimates should be multiplied by a factor 1.8 before being applicable in the air pollution context. Moreover, in an illustrative BT exercise we find limited overlap in the set of context specific predictive VSL distributions. Consequently, ‘out of context’ BT results in a substantial over- or underestimation of the VSL.     

Local air pollution and global climate change: A combined cost-benefit analysis

This article presents the findings of a combined cost-benefit analysis of local air pollution and global climate change, two subjects that are usually studied separately. Yet these distinct environmental problems are closely related, since they are both driven by the nature of present energy production and consumption patterns. Our study demonstrates the mutual relevance of, and interaction between, policies designed to address these two environmental challenges individually. Given the many dimensions air pollution control and climate change management have in common, it is surprising that they have only little been analyzed in combination so far. We attempt to cover at least part of the existing gap in the literature by assessing how costs and benefits of technologies and strategies that jointly tackle these two environmental problems can best be balanced. By using specific technological options that cut down local air pollution, e.g. related to particulate emissions, one may concurrently reduce CO₂ emissions and thus contribute to diminishing global climate change. Inversely, some of the long-term climate change strategies simultaneously improve the quality of air in the short run. We have extended the well-established MERGE model by including emissions of particulate matter, and show that integrated environmental policies generate net global welfare benefits. We also demonstrate that the discounted benefits of local air pollution reduction significantly outweigh those of global climate change mitigation, at least by a factor of 2, but in most cases of our sensitivity analysis much more. Still, we do not argue to only restrict energy policy today to what should be our first priority, local air pollution control, and wait with the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Instead, we propose to design policies that simultaneously address these issues, as their combination creates an additional climate change bonus. As such, climate change mitigation proves an ancillary benefit of air pollution reduction, rather than the other way around.     

The stock market effect of air pollution: evidence from China

In financial studies, environmental stimuli such as sunshine, temperature, and daylight are often used as proxies for people’s collective mood swings to test their effects on the stock market. China has experienced serious air pollution problems in recent years, and Chinese public awareness of air pollution has soared. In this paper, we use China as a natural experiment to investigate the effect on stock returns of depressed moods induced by air pollution. Daily air-pollution data from 2005 to 2014 are analysed and the results obtained from the empirical research show that a contemporaneous negative and a two-day lagged positive relationship exists between air pollution levels and stock returns over this time period. The relationship is mediated by the influence of air pollution on investment decisions. The results also indicate that the effect is weakened for companies that protect air quality, but no stronger effect is detected for polluting companies. The findings imply that air pollution is a behavioural factor with some connection to stock returns in China.     

论我国大气污染生态补偿法律机制的完善

大气污染生态补偿法律机制对于促进区域大气污染联合治理、实现大气污染治理法律正义、创新与完善生态补偿法律机制等具有重要意义。我国现有法律法规就大气污染生态补偿进行了原则性规定,特别是山东、陕西、湖北等地方性法规更是对大气污染生态补偿进行了探索性规范,为大气污染生态补偿法律机制完善提供了有益经验。但从总体来看,我国大气污染生态补偿法律机制尚存在缺乏专门法律支撑、生态补偿主体过窄、补偿方式单一、补偿标准不合理、法律责任不完善等问题。为促进生态文明战略与强化大气污染生态补偿的法律保障,我国应以科学理念为指导,采取有效措施推进大气污染生态补偿法律机制完善。     

微生物应用于环境污染治理的新进展

介绍了微生物在在水体污染、固体废弃物污染、重金属污染、石油污染、大气污染治理过程中的应用现状。并对微生物在环境保护中的应用和发展趋势进行了讨论。     

Technology adoption decisions under a mixed regulatory system of tradable permits and air pollution fees for the control of Total Suspended Particulates in Taiwan

By using a newly proposed tradable permit system built under the current air pollution fee regulation for the control of Total Suspended Particulates in Taiwan as an example, a mixed-integer non-linear programming model that minimizes the total regulatory costs of firms is applied to investigate how different permit trading ratios and the design of banking might affect firms’ technology adoption decisions and permit trading behavior. By incorporating binary variables in the model to represent firms’ decisions as to whether or not to install new control equipment, the results show that when the unit air pollution fee rate is higher than the firms’ abatement costs, the design of banking causes many firms to install new control equipment that results in an over-reduction of emissions. If no air pollution fee is imposed, the trading ratio plays a more important role than the reservation rate for banking in determining the firms’ emission reduction strategies under a pure permit trading scheme. While the conclusion from this study that uses a non-uniformly mixed pollutant as an example may hold only when certain conditions are met, the framework can be applied to other uniformly mixed pollutants through parameter changes without any limitation. In addition, the modeling technique presented here offers policy-makers a very convenient approach to empirical analysis.      

中国环境污染经济损失估算：1993年

本文主要以国内的有关研究成果为基础，对中国环境污染造成的经济损失进行了估算，包括：大气污染、酸雨、水污染及综合因素污染四方面的经济损失估算。     

媒体压力与空气质量改善

本文使用2014—2017年我国省级报纸对省份内地级市的空气污染报道数据,实证检验了媒体压力在促进空气质量改善中的作用。研究发现,媒体对污染报道的增加,显著促进了城市空气质量的改善,且这种改善的效果受污染报道发表报纸是否为省级党委机关报以及城市主政官员特征的影响。这意味着,媒体污染报道主要通过对政府官员形成的压力来促进地方政府进行污染治理、改善空气质量。进一步研究发现,环境治理投入的增加与工业污染排放的减少,是媒体压力促进城市空气质量改善的有效途径。本文的结论,对于理解新时代我国舆论监督的作用机制以及更好发挥新闻媒体监督在环境治理中的作用,提供了新的视角。     

Are Democracies Cleaner?

We inquire whether democracies enjoy lower pollution levels than autocracies by investigating the ‘clean democracy hypothesis’, which posits that democracies have a more demand-determined policy formation leading to more stringent environmental policies. We test this hypothesis with a large data set covering 137 countries and the period 1970–2012 using eleven different air pollutants as endogenous variables and a wide range of control variables measuring democracy, development stage, globalization, and factor endowments. We find no consistent evidence that democracies are cleaner, not even the richer ones, which casts doubt on the validity of single pollutants studies. Numerous checks show the robustness of our results.     

Transboundary air pollution and soil acidification: A dynamic analysis of an acid rain game between Finland and the USSR

Transboundary air pollution is analysed as a dynamic game between Finland and the nearby areas of the Soviet Union. Sulphur emissions are used as the environmental control variables and the acidities of the soils as the state variables. Acidification is consequently considered to be a stock pollutant having long-lasting harmful effects on the environment. The state dynamics consist of two relationships: first, of a sulphur transportation model between the regions and, second, of a model describing how the quality of the soil is affected by sulphur deposition. The countries are assumed to be interested in maximizing the net benefits from pollution control as measured by the impacts on the values of forest growth net of the abatement costs. Cooperative and noncooperative solutions of the game are compared to assess the benefits of bilateral cooperation. Using empirical estimates of abatement costs, acidification dynamics and impacts on forest growth it is shown that cooperation is beneficial to Finland but not to the Soviet Union. Consequently, Finland has to offer monetary compensation to induce her neighbor to invest in environmental protection.     

对我国城市环境污染与防治对策的思考

随着工业化和城市化水平的提高，我国的城市环境污染问题正成为制约社会经济发展的一个重要障碍，许多城市的环境污染已相当严重，如沈阳、西安和北京等已列入全球大气污染严重的城市之列。对城市环境污染的相关问题进行研究有重要的现实意义，本文分析了污染我国城市环境的四大因素，最后提出了有效防治城市环境污染的对策建议。     

Economic and environmental impacts of trade liberalization: The case of Indonesia

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the environmental impacts of trade liberalization. This paper provides further discourse in this area with a study on Indonesia and its trade agreements with Japan (IJEPA) and ASEAN (AFTA). A static global CGE model, known as the Global Trade Analysis Project, was used to project the Indonesian economy to the year 2022, with and without tariff reforms agreed under the agreements. Environmental impacts are assessed using different pollution indicators—air, water and waste. The study suggests that Indonesia would grow rapidly over the period considered with a large deterioration in its environment. Following these, however, the agreements only have a marginal positive impact on Indonesia's output but with a noticeable increase in trade flows and signs of trade diversion. Overall AFTA has a greater impact on the Indonesian economy compared to IJEPA. Similarly, the impact of trade liberalization on the environment is marginal. On the whole, tariff reform is inducing air pollution and reducing water pollution. In conclusion, the study suggests that Indonesia's participation in the AFTA and IJEPA agreements is not likely to bring drastic changes to her economic and environmental performance.     

中国废水排放量趋势预测——基于任务相关性的机器学习方法

中国的水污染是一个非常严重的问题,为了控制水污染,对中国未来废水排放量进行准确预测具有十分重要的意义。从影响废水排放量的潜在变量中筛选出GDP、人均GDP和产业结构三个关键预测变量,采用1998—2017年中国省域数据和基于任务相关性的机器学习方法对各省份废水排放量趋势进行预测。实验结果表明,所建立的预测模型能够保持线性回归模型的可解释性,并获得较高的预测精度(RMSE、MAE和MAPE分别为0.0882、0.0643和0.5533)。预计全国年废水排放总量2025年最低将达到9081209万吨,最高9903864万吨;2030年最低将达到10864311万吨,最高13081922万吨。政府部门可根据预测结果制定废水减排计划和经济发展规划,在发展经济的同时维持生态环境的平衡。     

Foreign direct investment and air pollution in Asian countries: does institutional quality matter?

This paper empirically studies how foreign direct investment (FDI) affects air pollution, and how this effect depends on institutional quality. By using a panel data for 19 developing Asian countries over the period of 2002–2015, we find that FDI inflows initially increase air pollution in Asia, and the institutional quality improvement helps reduce this effect until the institutional quality achieves a threshold, then beyond this threshold, FDI reduces air pollution. The findings indicate that the pollution haven hypothesis and the pollution halo hypothesis are not contradictory when the institutional quality is taken into consideration.     

Rural light pollution from shale gas development and associated sleep and subjective well-being

The shale oil and gas boom has had large economic, environmental, and social impacts on rural communities in the United States. This study provides novel estimates of the impacts of shale oil and gas development on light pollution in rural areas of the United States. Using nationwide, time-calibrated DMSP-OLS database from 2000 to 2012, we find robust evidence that the shale oil and gas boom significantly increased light pollution in rural areas. We then assess associations between horizontal drilling and subjective self-rated health using nationwide data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) from 2000 to 2012. Our findings suggest that insufficient sleep and poor health (physical or mental) are associated with increased drilling in rural areas. These results provide support for drilling-related light pollution as an additional environmental pathway of concern for public health beyond the mechanisms of air or water pollution.     

It's an ill wind: The effect of fine particulate air pollution on respiratory hospitalizations

While a growing literature in economics has established the harmful health effects of longstanding criteria air pollutants such as ozone and carbon monoxide, fine particulate air pollution is relatively understudied. This paper provides evidence on the harmful effects of fine particulate pollution for Ontario, where municipalities enjoy particulate levels well below US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standards and predominantly below Canada‐wide standards. Results provide strong evidence for the detrimental effect of fine particulate pollution for the respiratory health of children, with a one standard deviation change in particulate pollution, leading to a 4% increase in respiratory admissions. While these results inform the stringency of current pollution standards, they also highlight the importance of an international approach to air quality. For instance, the paper also shows that particulate levels in Ontario municipalities are strongly influenced by southerly winds from US jurisdictions, which adhere to more lenient EPA standards.     

Dose response functions and the harvesting effect

Much of the existing literature on air pollution and mortality deals only with the short-term effects of air pollution. Policy on the other hand needs to know when, whether and to what extent pollution-induced increases in mortality counts are reversed. This involves modelling the entire infinite distributed-lag effect of air pollution on mortality counts.Using an ARMAX modelling strategy this paper illustrates how distributed lag effects can be parsimoniously but plausibly estimated in the context of a time-series study into the relationship between ambient levels of air pollution and daily mortality counts for Manchester. The analysis reveals that maximum 1-h ozone levels are strongly associated with daily mortality counts and that a significant harvesting effect is present. The mortality cost of peak 1-h ozone concentrations for Greater Manchester with a population of 2.6 million is estimated to be £572 million annually. This accounts for the fact that some of the deaths associated with maximum 1-h O₃ concentrations have been advanced only by a short period of time.