IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/eti/dpaper/22109.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Effects of Low Emission Zones on Air Quality, New Vehicle Registrations, and Birthweights: Evidence from Japan

Author

Listed:
  • NISHITATENO Shuhei
  • Paul BURKE

Abstract

During the early 2000s, five prefectures in Japan introduced a Low Emission Zone (LEZ) policy that banned highly polluting diesel trucks and buses from entering. This paper analyzes effects of this policy intervention on air quality, new vehicle registrations, and birthweights. To do so we use a matching approach to construct a control group that is comparable to the designated areas in terms of pollution levels and road traffic volumes of regulated vehicles and apply a difference-in-differences (DD) design. We find that the LEZs led to a reduction in hourly suspended particulate matter concentrations and to reduced incidence of low birthweights in the treated prefectures relative to the control group, holding the gestational period and other controls constant. Evidence also suggests that the LEZs led to an increase in new registrations of trucks and buses, but not of passenger cars, which were exempt from the regulations. Our paper is the first to study such a large-scale LEZ intervention and to provide evidence linking LEZs to reduced incidence of low birthweights.

Suggested Citation

  • NISHITATENO Shuhei & Paul BURKE, 2022. "Effects of Low Emission Zones on Air Quality, New Vehicle Registrations, and Birthweights: Evidence from Japan," Discussion papers 22109, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    • Handle: RePEc:eti:dpaper:22109
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.rieti.go.jp/jp/publications/dp/22e109.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nishitateno, Shuhei & Burke, Paul J., 2021. "Willingness to pay for clean air: Evidence from diesel vehicle registration restrictions in Japan," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    2. Margaryan, Shushanik, 2021. "Low emission zones and population health," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    3. A. Smith, Jeffrey & E. Todd, Petra, 2005. "Does matching overcome LaLonde's critique of nonexperimental estimators?," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 125(1-2), pages 305-353.
    4. Sourafel Girma & Holger Görg, 2016. "Evaluating the foreign ownership wage premium using a difference-in-differences matching approach," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: MULTINATIONAL ENTERPRISES AND HOST COUNTRY DEVELOPMENT Volume 53: World Scientific Studies in International Economics, chapter 2, pages 17-32, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    5. Pestel, Nico & Wozny, Florian, 2021. "Health effects of Low Emission Zones: Evidence from German hospitals," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    6. Rohlf, Alexander & Holub, Felix & Koch, Nicolas & Ritter, Nolan, 2020. "The effect of clean air on pharmaceutical expenditures," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    7. Janet Currie, 2009. "Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise: Socioeconomic Status, Poor Health in Childhood, and Human Capital Development," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 47(1), pages 87-122, March.
    8. Gehrsitz, Markus, 2017. "The effect of low emission zones on air pollution and infant health," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 121-144.
    9. Chabé-Ferret, Sylvain & Subervie, Julie, 2013. "How much green for the buck? Estimating additional and windfall effects of French agro-environmental schemes by DID-matching," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 65(1), pages 12-27.
    10. Hirota, Haruaki & Yunoue, Hideo, 2017. "Evaluation of the fiscal effect on municipal mergers: Quasi-experimental evidence from Japanese municipal data," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 132-149.
    11. Janet Currie & Reed Walker, 2011. "Traffic Congestion and Infant Health: Evidence from E-ZPass," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 3(1), pages 65-90, January.
    12. Hendrik Wolff, 2014. "Keep Your Clunker in the Suburb: Low‐emission Zones and Adoption of Green Vehicles," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 124(578), pages 481-512, August.
    13. Goodman-Bacon, Andrew, 2021. "Difference-in-differences with variation in treatment timing," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 225(2), pages 254-277.
    14. Tatyana Deryugina & Alexander MacKay & Julian Reif, 2020. "The Long-Run Dynamics of Electricity Demand: Evidence from Municipal Aggregation," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 12(1), pages 86-114, January.
    15. Klauber, Hannah & Holub, Felix & Koch, Nicolas & Pestel, Nico & Ritter, Nolan & Rohlf, Alexander, 2021. "Killing Prescriptions Softly: Low Emission Zones and Child Health from Birth to School," IZA Discussion Papers 14376, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    16. Marianne Bertrand & Esther Duflo & Sendhil Mullainathan, 2004. "How Much Should We Trust Differences-In-Differences Estimates?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 119(1), pages 249-275.
    17. Green, Colin P. & Heywood, John S. & Navarro Paniagua, Maria, 2020. "Did the London congestion charge reduce pollution?," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    18. Jiaxiu He & Nelson Gouveia & Alberto Salvo, 2019. "External Effects of Diesel Trucks Circulating Inside the São Paulo Megacity," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 17(3), pages 947-989.
    19. Wolff, Hendrik, 2014. "Keep Your Clunker in the Suburb: Low Emission Zones and Adoption of Green Vehicles," IZA Discussion Papers 8180, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    20. Shuhei Nishitateno & Paul J. Burke, 2020. "Have Vehicle Registration Restrictions Improved Urban Air Quality In Japan?," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 38(3), pages 448-459, July.
    21. Malani, Anup & Reif, Julian, 2015. "Interpreting pre-trends as anticipation: Impact on estimated treatment effects from tort reform," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 1-17.
    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. NISHITATENO Shuhei & Paul J. BURKE & ARIMURA Toshi H., 2023. "Road Traffic Flow and Air Pollution Concentrations: Evidence from Japan," Discussion papers 23031, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).

    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. Beshir, H.A.; & Fichera, E.;, 2022. "“And Breathe Normally†: The Low Emission Zone impacts on health and well-being in England," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 22/09, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
    2. Gruhl, Henri & Volkhausen, Nicolas & Pestel, Nico & aus dem Moore, Nils, 2022. "Air pollution and the housing market: Evidence from Germany's Low Emission Zones," Ruhr Economic Papers 977, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    3. Pestel, Nico & Wozny, Florian, 2021. "Health effects of Low Emission Zones: Evidence from German hospitals," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    4. Klauber, Hannah & Holub, Felix & Koch, Nicolas & Pestel, Nico & Ritter, Nolan & Rohlf, Alexander, 2021. "Killing Prescriptions Softly: Low Emission Zones and Child Health from Birth to School," IZA Discussion Papers 14376, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Brehm, Johannes & Pestel, Nico & Schaffner, Sandra & Schmitz, Laura, 2022. "From low emission zone to academic track: Environmental policy effects on educational achievement in elementary school," Ruhr Economic Papers 980, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    6. Sarmiento, Luis & Wägner, Nicole & Zaklan, Aleksandar, 2021. "Effectiveness, Spillovers, and Well-Being Effects of Driving Restriction Policies," RFF Working Paper Series 21-13, Resources for the Future.
    7. Eren Aydin & Kathleen Kürschner Rauck, 2023. "Low-emission zones, modes of transport and house prices: evidence from Berlin’s commuter belt," Transportation, Springer, vol. 50(5), pages 1847-1895, October.
    8. Shihe Fu & V. Brian Viard, 2022. "A mayors perspective on tackling air pollution," Chapters, in: Charles K.Y. Leung (ed.), Handbook of Real Estate and Macroeconomics, chapter 16, pages 413-437, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    9. Austin, Wes & Carattini, Stefano & Gomez-Mahecha, John & Pesko, Michael F., 2023. "The effects of contemporaneous air pollution on COVID-19 morbidity and mortality," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    10. Chen, Shiyi & Jiang, Lingduo & Liu, Wanlin & Song, Hong, 2022. "Fireworks regulation, air pollution, and public health: Evidence from China," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    11. Margaryan, Shushanik, 2021. "Low emission zones and population health," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    12. Green, Colin P. & Heywood, John S. & Navarro Paniagua, Maria, 2020. "Did the London congestion charge reduce pollution?," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    13. Fageda, Xavier & Flores-Fillol, Ricardo & Theilen, Bernd, 2022. "Price versus quantity measures to deal with pollution and congestion in urban areas: A political economy approach," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    14. Paul E. Carrillo & Arun S. Malik & Yiseon Yoo, 2016. "Driving restrictions that work? Quito's Pico y Placa Program," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 49(4), pages 1536-1568, November.
    15. Isaksen, Elisabeth T. & Johansen, Bjørn G., 2021. "Congestion pricing, air pollution, and individual-level behavioral responses," Memorandum 1/2021, Oslo University, Department of Economics.
    16. Hamilton, Timothy L. & Wichman, Casey J., 2018. "Bicycle infrastructure and traffic congestion: Evidence from DC's Capital Bikeshare," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 72-93.
    17. Isaksen, Elisabeth & Johansen, Bjørn G., 2021. "Congestion pricing, air pollution, and individual-level behavioural responses," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 111493, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    18. Jingbo Liu & Haoyuan Feng & Kun Wang, 2022. "The Low-Carbon City Pilot Policy and Urban Land Use Efficiency: A Policy Assessment from China," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(5), pages 1-18, April.
    19. Shen, Yu & Sun, Wenkai, 2023. "The effect of low-carbon city pilot on energy consumption behavior: Evidence from China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(PA).
    20. Prieto-Rodriguez, Juan & Perez-Villadoniga, Maria J. & Salas, Rafael & Russo, Ana, 2022. "Impact of London Toxicity Charge and Ultra Low Emission Zone on NO2," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 237-247.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:eti:dpaper:22109. 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: TANIMOTO, Toko (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/rietijp.html .

    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.