Kahn Matthew E, Sun Weizeng, Zheng Siqi
Department of Economics, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, NBER, United States of America.
Central University of Finance and Economics, 39 South College Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100081, China.
Ecol Econ. 2022 Feb;192:107254. doi: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2021.107254. Epub 2021 Oct 18.
The surprise economic shutdown due to COVID-19 caused a sharp improvement in urban air quality in many previously heavily polluted Chinese cities. If clean air is a valued experience good, then this short-term reduction in pollution in spring 2020 could have persistent medium-term effects on reducing urban pollution levels as cities adopt new "blue sky" regulations to maintain recent pollution progress. We document that China's cross-city Environmental Kuznets Curve shifts as a function of a city's demand for clean air. We rank 144 cities in China based on their population's baseline sensitivity to air pollution and with respect to their recent air pollution gains due to the COVID shutdown. The largest experience good effect should take place for cities featuring a high pollution sensitive population and where air quality has sharply improved during the pandemic. The residents of these cities have increased their online discussions focused on environmental protection, and local officials are incorporating "green" industrial subsidies into post-COVID stimulus policies.
因新冠疫情导致的意外经济停摆，使中国许多此前污染严重的城市空气质量大幅改善。如果清洁空气是一种有价值的体验商品，那么2020年春季污染的短期减少可能会对降低城市污染水平产生持续的中期影响，因为城市会采用新的“蓝天”法规来维持近期在污染治理方面取得的进展。我们证明，中国城市间的环境库兹涅茨曲线会随着城市对清洁空气的需求而变化。我们根据中国144个城市人口对空气污染的基线敏感度以及因新冠疫情停摆导致的近期空气污染改善情况对这些城市进行排名。对于那些有对污染敏感的大量人口且在疫情期间空气质量大幅改善的城市，体验商品效应应该最为显著。这些城市的居民增加了围绕环境保护的在线讨论，地方官员也将“绿色”产业补贴纳入了新冠疫情后的刺激政策中。
