IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/enreec/v74y2019i1d10.1007_s10640-018-00313-8.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Averting Behavior Among Singaporeans During Indonesian Forest Fires

Author

Listed:
  • Tamara L. Sheldon

    (University of South Carolina)

  • Chandini Sankaran

    (Boston College)

Abstract

We estimate averting behavior in the form of increased electricity usage in Singapore during the haze caused by Indonesian forest fires. Our results indicate that increases in fire radiative power in Indonesia result in statistically significant increases in one- and two-day ahead electricity demand. Further results show that the Indonesian fires accounted for 0.5% of Singaporean electricity demand between February 2012 and August 2017 at a total cost of over $270 million. In addition, we find that the residential electricity share increases and the industrial share decreases during fire episodes, suggesting the increase in demand may be due to Singaporeans staying home and/or increasing their air conditioning use during these times. This averting behavior is persistent, not diminishing, during periods of frequent poor air quality.

Suggested Citation

  • Tamara L. Sheldon & Chandini Sankaran, 2019. "Averting Behavior Among Singaporeans During Indonesian Forest Fires," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 74(1), pages 159-180, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:enreec:v:74:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1007_s10640-018-00313-8
    DOI: 10.1007/s10640-018-00313-8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10640-018-00313-8
    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/s10640-018-00313-8?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 search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mansfield, Carol & Reed Johnson, F. & Van Houtven, George, 2006. "The missing piece: Valuing averting behavior for children's ozone exposures," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 215-228, August.
    2. Tamara L. Sheldon & Chandini Sankaran, 2017. "The Impact of Indonesian Forest Fires on Singaporean Pollution and Health," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(5), pages 526-529, May.
    3. Matthew Neidell, 2009. "Information, Avoidance Behavior, and Health: The Effect of Ozone on Asthma Hospitalizations," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 44(2).
    4. Narayan Sastry, 2002. "Forest fires, air pollution, and mortality in Southeast Asia," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 39(1), pages 1-23, February.
    5. Graff Zivin, Joshua & Neidell, Matthew, 2009. "Days of haze: Environmental information disclosure and intertemporal avoidance behavior," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 58(2), pages 119-128, September.
    6. Luca Tacconi & Frank Jotzo & R. Grafton, 2008. "Local causes, regional co-operation and global financing for environmental problems: the case of Southeast Asian Haze pollution," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 8(1), pages 1-16, March.
    7. Enrico Moretti & Matthew Neidell, 2011. "Pollution, Health, and Avoidance Behavior: Evidence from the Ports of Los Angeles," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 46(1), pages 154-175.
    8. Quah, Euston, 2002. "Transboundary Pollution in Southeast Asia: The Indonesian Fires," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 429-441, March.
    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. Bouwe R. Dijkstra, 2022. "Payments from Households to Distant Polluting Firms," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 82(3), pages 681-715, July.
    2. Lu, Pei-Jyun, and Mark Skidmore, 2024. "Tropical Cyclone Day-off Orders, Warnings, and Avoidance Behavior," The Review of Regional Studies, Southern Regional Science Association, vol. 54(3), pages 259-282.

    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. Tamara L. Sheldon & Chandini Sankaran, 2016. "Transboundary Pollution in Southeast Asia: Welfare and Avoidance Costs in Singapore from the Forest Burning in Indonesia," Boston College Working Papers in Economics 960, Boston College Department of Economics.
    2. Alison L. Sexton Ward & Timothy K. M. Beatty, 2016. "Who Responds to Air Quality Alerts?," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 65(2), pages 487-511, October.
    3. Saberian, Soodeh & Heyes, Anthony & Rivers, Nicholas, 2017. "Alerts work! Air quality warnings and cycling," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 165-185.
    4. Tong Liu & Guojun He & Alexis Lau, 2018. "Avoidance behavior against air pollution: evidence from online search indices for anti-PM2.5 masks and air filters in Chinese cities," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 20(2), pages 325-363, April.
    5. Bongkyun Kim, 2019. "Do Air Quality Alerts Affect Household Migration?," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 85(3), pages 766-795, January.
    6. Mariano J. Rabassa & Mariana Conte Grand & Christian M. García-Witulski, 2021. "Heat warnings and avoidance behavior: evidence from a bike-sharing system," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 23(1), pages 1-28, January.
    7. Julia Mink, 2024. "Putting a Price Tag on Air Pollution: The Social Healthcare Costs of Air Pollution in France," ECONtribute Discussion Papers Series 320, University of Bonn and University of Cologne, Germany.
    8. Adler, David & Severnini, Edson, 2023. "Timing matters: Intra-day shifts of economic activity and ambient ozone concentrations," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 223(C).
    9. Sun, Cong & Kahn, Matthew E. & Zheng, Siqi, 2017. "Self-protection investment exacerbates air pollution exposure inequality in urban China," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 468-474.
    10. Luechinger, Simon, 2014. "Air pollution and infant mortality: A natural experiment from power plant desulfurization," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 219-231.
    11. 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.
    12. Shr, Yau-Huo & Hsu, Wen & Hwang, Bing-Fang & Jung, Chau-Ren, 2023. "Air quality and risky behaviors on roads," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    13. Joshua Graff Zivin & Matthew Neidell, 2013. "Environment, Health, and Human Capital," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 51(3), pages 689-730, September.
    14. Jans, Jenny & Johansson, Per & Nilsson, J. Peter, 2018. "Economic status, air quality, and child health: Evidence from inversion episodes," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 220-232.
    15. Han, Ahram & Ten, Gi Khan & Wang, Shun, 2023. "Gray skies and blue moms: The effect of air pollution on parental life satisfaction," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    16. Pan, Siyu, 2023. "Health, air pollution, and location choice," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    17. Yu SHEN & Wenkai SUN, 2023. "Information and avoidance behaviour: The effect of air pollution disclosure on labour supply in China," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 162(4), pages 665-686, December.
    18. He, Guojun & Fan, Maoyong & Zhou, Maigeng, 2016. "The effect of air pollution on mortality in China: Evidence from the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 18-39.
    19. Zhengtao Li & Henk Folmer, 2023. "Air pollution and perception-based averting behaviour in the Jinchuan mining area, China," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 70(2), pages 477-505, April.
    20. Chen, Xiaohong & Zhao, Jinhua & Zhou, Li, 2024. "Knowledge protects against pollution: The health effects of the cadmium rice event in China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Air pollution; Health; Avoidance behavior; Externalities; Forestry;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D62 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Externalities
    • I1 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health
    • Q23 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation - - - Forestry
    • Q51 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Valuation of Environmental Effects
    • Q5 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics

    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:74:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1007_s10640-018-00313-8. 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.