IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/enreec/v68y2017i3d10.1007_s10640-016-0041-3.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Cost of Pollution on Longevity, Welfare and Economic Stability

Author

Listed:
  • Natacha Raffin

    (University Paris Ouest Nanterre la Défense)

  • Thomas Seegmuller

    (CNRS & EHESS, Centre de la Vieille Charité)

Abstract

This paper presents an overlapping generations model where pollution, private and public health expenditures are all determinants of longevity. Public expenditures, financed through labour taxation, provide both public health and abatement. We study the role of these three components of longevity on welfare and economic stability. At the steady state, we show that an appropriate fiscal policy may enhance welfare. However, when pollution is heavily harmful for longevity, the economy might experience aggregate instability or endogenous cycles. Nonetheless, a fiscal policy, which raises the share of public spending devoted to health, may display stabilizing virtues and rule out cycles. This allows us to recommend the design of the public policy that may comply with the dynamic and welfare objectives.

Suggested Citation

  • Natacha Raffin & Thomas Seegmuller, 2017. "The Cost of Pollution on Longevity, Welfare and Economic Stability," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 68(3), pages 683-704, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:enreec:v:68:y:2017:i:3:d:10.1007_s10640-016-0041-3
    DOI: 10.1007/s10640-016-0041-3
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10640-016-0041-3
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10640-016-0041-3?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Goenka, A. & Jafarey, S. & Pouliot, W., 2012. "Pollution, mortality and optimal environmental policy," Working Papers 12/07, Department of Economics, City University London.
    2. Pautrel, Xavier, 2009. "Pollution and life expectancy: How environmental policy can promote growth," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(4), pages 1040-1051, February.
    3. John, A & Pecchenino, R, 1994. "An Overlapping Generations Model of Growth and the Environment," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 104(427), pages 1393-1410, November.
    4. X. Pautrel, 2008. "Reconsidering the Impact of the Environment on Long-run Growth when Pollution Influences Health and Agents have a Finite-lifetime," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 40(1), pages 37-52, May.
    5. Shankha Chakraborty & Mausumi Das, 2005. "Mortality, Human Capital and Persistent Inequality," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 10(2), pages 159-192, June.
    6. Junxi Zhang, 1999. "Environmental sustainability, nonlinear dynamics and chaos," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 14(2), pages 489-500.
    7. David E. Bloom & David Canning & Bryan Graham, 2003. "Longevity and Life‐cycle Savings," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 105(3), pages 319-338, September.
    8. Bhattacharya, Joydeep & Qiao, Xue, 2005. "Public and Private Expenditures on Health in a Growth Model," Staff General Research Papers Archive 12378, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    9. Avraham Ebenstein & Maoyong Fan & Michael Greenstone & Guojun He & Peng Yin & Maigeng Zhou, 2015. "Growth, Pollution, and Life Expectancy: China from 1991-2012," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(5), pages 226-231, May.
    10. Kaigang Li & Noy Kay & Nattiporn Nokkaew, 2009. "The Performance of the World Health Organization’s WHOQOL-BREF in Assessing the Quality of Life of Thai College Students," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 90(3), pages 489-501, February.
    11. Raffin, Natacha & Seegmuller, Thomas, 2014. "Longevity, pollution and growth," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 22-33.
    12. Gary S. Becker & Tomas J. Philipson & Rodrigo R. Soares, 2005. "The Quantity and Quality of Life and the Evolution of World Inequality," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(1), pages 277-291, March.
    13. Pierre-André Jouvet & Pierre Pestieau & Gregory Ponthiere, 2010. "Longevity and environmental quality in an OLG model," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 100(3), pages 191-216, July.
    14. Natacha Raffin, 2012. "Childrens environmental health, education, and economic development," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 45(3), pages 996-1022, August.
    15. Williams III, Roberton C., 2003. "Health effects and optimal environmental taxes," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(2), pages 323-335, February.
    16. Wang, Min & Zhao, Jinhua & Bhattacharya, Joydeep, 2015. "Optimal health and environmental policies in a pollution-growth nexus," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 160-179.
    17. Williams, Roberton III, 2002. "Environmental Tax Interactions when Pollution Affects Health or Productivity," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 44(2), pages 261-270, September.
    18. Jouvet, Pierre-Andre & Michel, Philippe & Rotillon, Gilles, 2005. "Optimal growth with pollution: how to use pollution permits?," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 29(9), pages 1597-1609, September.
    19. Rosa Aísa & Fernando Pueyo, 2004. "Endogenous longevity, health and economic growth: a slow growth for a longer life?," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 9(3), pages 1-10.
    20. Jie Zhang & Junsen Zhang, 2005. "The Effect of Life Expectancy on Fertility, Saving, Schooling and Economic Growth: Theory and Evidence," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 107(1), pages 45-66, March.
    21. Michael C. M. Leung & Yong Wang, 2010. "Endogenous Health Care, Life Expectancy And Economic Growth," Pacific Economic Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(1), pages 11-31, February.
    22. Cees Withagen, 1995. "Pollution, abatement and balanced growth," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 5(1), pages 1-8, January.
    23. Matteo Cervellati & Uwe Sunde, 2005. "Human Capital Formation, Life Expectancy, and the Process of Development," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(5), pages 1653-1672, December.
    24. repec:cor:louvrp:-2377 is not listed on IDEAS
    25. Palivos, Theodore & Varvarigos, Dimitrios, 2017. "Pollution Abatement As A Source Of Stabilization And Long-Run Growth," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 21(3), pages 644-676, April.
    26. Chakraborty, Shankha, 2004. "Endogenous lifetime and economic growth," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 116(1), pages 119-137, May.
    27. Natacha Raffin & Thomas Seegmuller, 2014. "Longevity, pollution and growth," Post-Print hal-01385920, HAL.
    28. Blackburn, Keith & Cipriani, Giam Pietro, 2002. "A model of longevity, fertility and growth," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 187-204, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sichao Wei & David Aadland, 2021. "Pollution permits, green taxes, and the environmental poverty trap," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(2), pages 1032-1052, May.
    2. Armel Ngami & Thomas Seegmuller, 2021. "Pollution and growth: The role of pension in the efficiency of health and environmental policies," International Journal of Economic Theory, The International Society for Economic Theory, vol. 17(4), pages 390-415, December.
    3. Varvarigos, Dimitrios, 2023. "Cultural persistence in corruption, economic growth, and the environment," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    4. Boucekkine, Raouf & Seegmuller, Thomas & Venditti, Alain, 2021. "Advances in growth and macroeconomic dynamics: In memory of Carine Nourry," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 1-6.
    5. Dugan, Anna & Prskawetz, Alexia & Raffin, Natacha, 2022. "The Environment, Life Expectancy and Growth in Overlapping Generations Models: A Survey," ECON WPS - Working Papers in Economic Theory and Policy 01/2022, TU Wien, Institute of Statistics and Mathematical Methods in Economics, Economics Research Unit.
    6. Johanna Etner & Natacha Raffin & Thomas Seegmuller, 2016. ""The Falling Sperm Counts Story": A Limit to Growth?," AMSE Working Papers 1625, Aix-Marseille School of Economics, France, revised 04 Jul 2016.
    7. Zhao Zhang & Caoyuan Ma & Aiping Wang, 2023. "Environmental Governance, Public Health Expenditure, and Economic Growth: Analysis in an OLG Model," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(4), pages 1-21, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Dugan, Anna & Prskawetz, Alexia & Raffin, Natacha, 2022. "The Environment, Life Expectancy and Growth in Overlapping Generations Models: A Survey," ECON WPS - Working Papers in Economic Theory and Policy 01/2022, TU Wien, Institute of Statistics and Mathematical Methods in Economics, Economics Research Unit.
    2. Armel Ngami & Thomas Seegmuller, 2021. "Pollution and growth: The role of pension in the efficiency of health and environmental policies," International Journal of Economic Theory, The International Society for Economic Theory, vol. 17(4), pages 390-415, December.
    3. Karine Constant, 2015. "Environmental Policy and Inequality: A Matter of Life and Death," AMSE Working Papers 1527, Aix-Marseille School of Economics, France.
    4. Goenka, Aditya & Jafarey, Saqib & Pouliot, William, 2020. "Pollution, mortality and time consistent abatement taxes," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 1-15.
    5. Pierre Pestieau & Gregory Ponthiere, 2012. "The Public Economics of Increasing Longevity," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 200(1), pages 41-74, March.
    6. Carlotta Balestra & Davide Dottori, 2012. "Aging society, health and the environment," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 25(3), pages 1045-1076, July.
    7. Constant, Karine, 2019. "Environmental policy and human capital inequality: A matter of life and death," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 134-157.
    8. Constant, Karine & Davin, Marion, 2021. "Pollution, children’s health and the evolution of human capital inequality," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 9-25.
    9. Karine Constant & Natacha Raffin, 2016. "Environnement, croissance et inégalités : le rôle particulier du canal de la santé," Revue française d'économie, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 0(3), pages 9-29.
    10. Zhao Zhang & Caoyuan Ma & Aiping Wang, 2023. "Environmental Governance, Public Health Expenditure, and Economic Growth: Analysis in an OLG Model," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(4), pages 1-21, February.
    11. Sichao Wei & David Aadland, 2021. "Pollution permits, green taxes, and the environmental poverty trap," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(2), pages 1032-1052, May.
    12. Maik T. Schneider & Ralph Winkler, 2021. "Growth and Welfare under Endogenous Lifetimes," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 123(4), pages 1339-1384, October.
    13. Aditya Goenka & Saqib Jafarey & William Pouliot, 2012. "Pollution, Mortality and Optimal Environmental Policy," Discussion Papers 12-05, Department of Economics, University of Birmingham.
    14. Aloi, Marta & Tournemaine, Frederic, 2011. "Growth effects of environmental policy when pollution affects health," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 1683-1695, July.
    15. Raffin, Natacha & Seegmuller, Thomas, 2014. "Longevity, pollution and growth," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 22-33.
    16. Brembilla, Laurent, 2018. "Longevity and welfare in general equilibrium," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 22-36.
    17. Luciano Fanti & Luca Gori, 2012. "Public Expenditure on Health and Private Old-Age Insurance in an OLG Growth Model with Endogenous Fertility: Chaotic Dynamics Under Perfect Foresight," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 40(4), pages 333-353, December.
    18. Xavier Pautrel, 2012. "Pollution, Private Investment in Healthcare, and Environmental Policy," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 114(2), pages 334-357, June.
    19. Nguyen Than Dao & Ottmar Edenhofer, 2014. "On the Fiscal Strategies of Escaping Poverty-Environment Traps (and) Towards Sustainable Growth," CESifo Working Paper Series 4865, CESifo.
    20. Dao, Nguyen Thang & Edenhofer, Ottmar, 2018. "On the fiscal strategies of escaping poverty-environment traps towards sustainable growth," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 253-273.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Longevity; Pollution; Welfare; Instability;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J10 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - General
    • O40 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - General
    • Q56 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environment and Development; Environment and Trade; Sustainability; Environmental Accounts and Accounting; Environmental Equity; Population Growth
    • C62 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling - - - Existence and Stability Conditions of Equilibrium

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:enreec:v:68:y:2017:i:3:d:10.1007_s10640-016-0041-3. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.