IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/aejpol/v13y2021i3p345-73.html

The Effect of Leaded Gasoline on Elderly Mortality: Evidence from Regulatory Exemptions

Author

Listed:
  • Alex Hollingsworth
  • Ivan Rudik

Abstract

Leaded gasoline is still used globally for aviation and automotive racing. Exploiting regulatory exemptions and a novel quasi-experiment, we find that leaded gasoline use in racing increases ambient lead, elevated blood lead rates, and elderly mortality. The mortality estimates indicate that each gram of lead added to gasoline exceeds $1,100 in damages. Our setting allows us to rule out potential confounders, such as correlated pollutants or socioeconomic status. We provide the first causal estimates linking adult mortality to leaded gasoline, highlight the value of banning on-road leaded gasoline, and present policy-relevant cost estimates at the lowest ambient levels to date.

Suggested Citation

  • Alex Hollingsworth & Ivan Rudik, 2021. "The Effect of Leaded Gasoline on Elderly Mortality: Evidence from Regulatory Exemptions," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 13(3), pages 345-373, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aejpol:v:13:y:2021:i:3:p:345-73
    DOI: 10.1257/pol.20190654
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/pol.20190654
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://doi.org/10.3886/E120128V1
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/pol.20190654.appx
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/pol.20190654.ds
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1257/pol.20190654?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
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Gazze, Ludovica & Klemick, Heather & Parthum, Bryan & Wolverton, Ann, 2024. "Door Hanger Outreach And Incentives Did Not Induce Water System Customers to Participate in Lead Water Pipe Inspections," National Center for Environmental Economics-NCEE Working Papers 348904, United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
    2. Zhou, Kuo & Luo, Haotian & Ye, Diyu & Tao, Yunqing, 2022. "The power of anti-corruption in environmental innovation: Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 182(C).
    3. Zhu, Junjie & Guo, Hongfeng, 2025. "Does the development of high-speed rail benefit carbon emissions reduction?," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    4. Mengdi Liu & Xin Zhao, 2025. "Adding to the Woes: Heterogeneous Effects of Air Pollution on Pandemic Patients," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 34(4), pages 655-676, April.
    5. Fletcher, Jason & Noghanibehambari, Hamid, 2025. "Early-life lead exposure and male longevity: Evidence from historical municipal water systems," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    6. Erixson, Oscar & Granath, Jakob & Hu, Xiao & Öhman, Mattias, 2024. "Toxic Metal Injustice? Socioeconomic status at birth and exposure to airborne pollution," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    7. Higney, Anthony & Hanley, Nick & Moro, Mirko, 2022. "The lead-crime hypothesis: A meta-analysis," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    8. Bui, Linda TM & Shadbegian, Ron & Marquez, Alicia & Klemick, Heather & Guignet, Dennis, "undated". "The Effects of Short-Term, In Utero Lead Exposure on Birth Outcomes by Trimester: Quasi-Experimental Evidence from NASCAR’s Deleading Policy," National Center for Environmental Economics-NCEE Working Papers 312234, United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
    9. Linh Pham & Travis Roach, 2024. "Spillover benefits of carbon dioxide cap and trade: Evidence from the Toxics Release Inventory," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 62(1), pages 449-467, January.
    10. Heather Klemick & Dennis Guignet & Linda T. Bui & Ron Shadbegian & Cameron Milani, 2022. "Cardiovascular Mortality and Leaded Aviation Fuel: Evidence from Piston-Engine Air Traffic in North Carolina," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(10), pages 1-26, May.
    11. Benjamin Reed Shiller, 2022. "Discreet Personalized Pricing," Working Papers 133, Brandeis University, Department of Economics and International Business School.
    12. Hollingsworth, Alex J. & Konisky, David M. & Zirogiannis, Nikolaos, 2021. "The health consequences of excess emissions: Evidence from Texas," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    13. Tatyana Deryugina & Julian Reif, 2023. "The Long-run Effect of Air Pollution on Survival," NBER Working Papers 31858, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Chenggang Li & Yikang Wan & Zhenci Xu & Xiangbo Fan & Chenyang Shuai & Xuemei Yu & Yuanyuan Tan, 2024. "Impacts and Pathways of the Belt and Road Initiative on Sustainable Development Goals of the Involved Countries," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(4), pages 2976-2989, August.
    15. Jia, Wentao & Ma, Chunbo & Wang, Xiao & Xie, Rui, 2025. "Intra-firm pollution leakage and redistribution of pollution exposure: Evidence from coal-regulated plants in China," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    16. Yangjie Wang & Cuicui Sun & Jinxian Wang & Xiaoyan Mao, 2024. "Do People Feel Healthier After Holding Sports Mega-Events? Evidence from the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 25(5), pages 583-609, June.
    17. Li, Haoyang & Chen, Yifeng & Ma, Mingming, 2024. "Temperature and life satisfaction: Evidence from Chinese older adults," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 225(C).
    18. Abbasi, Ali & DiTraglia, Francis J. & Gazze, Ludovica & Pals, Bridget, 2023. "Hidden hazards and screening policy: Predicting undetected lead exposure in Illinois," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    19. Alex Hollingsworth & Jiafang Mike Huang & Ivan Rudik & Nicholas J. Sanders, 2025. "A Thousand Cuts: Cumulative Lead Exposure Reduces Academic Achievement," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 60(3), pages 950-976.
    20. Anthony Higney & Nick Hanley & Mirko Moro, 2025. "The Impact of Lead Water Pollution on Birth Outcomes: A Natural Experiment in Scotland," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 88(12), pages 3737-3764, December.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • J14 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of the Elderly; Economics of the Handicapped; Non-Labor Market Discrimination
    • L71 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Primary Products and Construction - - - Mining, Extraction, and Refining: Hydrocarbon Fuels
    • Q51 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Valuation of Environmental Effects
    • Q53 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Air Pollution; Water Pollution; Noise; Hazardous Waste; Solid Waste; Recycling

    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:aea:aejpol:v:13:y:2021:i:3:p:345-73. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Michael P. Albert (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeaaaea.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.