Brodeur Abel, Cook Nikolai, Wright Taylor
Department of Economics, University of Ottawa, 120 University, Social Sciences Building, Ottawa, ON, K1N 6N5, Canada.
J Environ Econ Manage. 2021 Mar;106:102427. doi: 10.1016/j.jeem.2021.102427. Epub 2021 Feb 6.
This paper investigates the impacts of COVID-19 safer-at-home polices on collisions and pollution. We find that statewide safer-at-home policies lead to a 20% reduction in vehicular collisions and that the effect is entirely driven by less severe collisions. For pollution, we find particulate matter concentration levels approximately 1.5 g/m lower during the period of a safer-at-home order, representing a 25% reduction. We document a similar reduction in air pollution following the implementation of similar policies in Europe. We calculate that as of the end of June 2020, the benefits from avoided car collisions in the U.S. were approximately $16 billion while the benefits from reduced air pollution could be as high as $13 billion.
本文研究了新冠疫情期间居家更安全政策对碰撞事故和污染的影响。我们发现，全州范围的居家更安全政策使车辆碰撞事故减少了20%，且这一效果完全是由不太严重的碰撞事故减少所驱动的。对于污染，我们发现在居家更安全指令期间，颗粒物浓度水平降低了约1.5微克/立方米，降幅达25%。我们记录到，欧洲实施类似政策后空气污染也有类似程度的下降。我们计算得出，截至2020年6月底，美国因避免汽车碰撞事故而产生的效益约为160亿美元，而空气污染减少带来的效益可能高达130亿美元。
