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Estimating the effect of air pollution on road safety using atmospheric temperature

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  • Lutz Sager

Abstract

This paper estimates the causal effect of increased ambient air pollution on the frequency of road traffic accidents in the United Kingdom between 2009 and 2014. An instrumental variable approach is applied, exploiting atmospheric temperature inversions as a source of plausibly exogenous variation in daily air pollution levels. The paper estimates the local average treatment effect for a geographic grid cell (1° X 1º) as an increase of 0:3 accidents per day for each additional 1SYNμg=m³ in the daily concentration of NO2. The effect is equivalent to an increase of 2% relative to the average number of daily accidents. The results appear robust to multiple sources of potential confounding, measurement error and co-emission bias.

Suggested Citation

  • Lutz Sager, 2016. "Estimating the effect of air pollution on road safety using atmospheric temperature," GRI Working Papers 251, Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment.
    • Handle: RePEc:lsg:lsgwps:wp251
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Malvina Bondy & Sefi Roth & Lutz Sager, 2020. "Crime Is in the Air: The Contemporaneous Relationship between Air Pollution and Crime," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 7(3), pages 555-585.
    2. Narloch, Ulf & Bangalore, Mook, 2018. "The multifaceted relationship between environmental risks and poverty: new insights from Vietnam," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 87553, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    3. Heyes, Anthony & Zhu, Mingying, 2019. "Air pollution as a cause of sleeplessness: Social media evidence from a panel of Chinese cities," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    4. Fu, Shihe & Viard, Brian & Zhang, Peng, 2017. "Air Quality and Manufacturing Firm Productivity: Comprehensive Evidence from China," MPRA Paper 78914, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Chen, Siyu & Guo, Chongshan & Huang, Xinfei, 2018. "Air Pollution, Student Health, and School Absences: Evidence from China," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 465-497.
    6. Alessandro Palma & Inna Petrunyk & Daniela Vuri, 2022. "Prenatal air pollution exposure and neonatal health," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(5), pages 729-759, May.
    7. Wang, Yangjie & Chen, Xiaohong & Ren, Shenggang, 2019. "Clean energy adoption and maternal health: Evidence from China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).

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