Clean air eases your anger: evidence from China’s public complaints on air and noise pollution

Air pollution poses a substantial threat to public welfare, and can lead to decreased citizen satisfaction and potential political costs. This study investigates whether a causal link exists between air pollution and public discontent by exploiting real-time air quality data and a high-quality administrative dataset of public environmental complaints in China. We obtained the dataset from the Ministry of Ecology and Environment. It provides full records of public environmental complaints received by all levels of government from 2017 to 2019. Based on our estimation, a 10-unit increase in the Air Quality Index (higher values indicate poorer air quality) significantly increased daily air pollution complaints by 13.9% and noise pollution complaints by 11.0%, on average. These results suggest that air pollution increases environmental complaints related to air pollution and also triggers a spillover effect, leading to increased noise pollution complaints. Our dynamic analysis suggests that the impact of air pollution on citizen dissatisfaction persists for up to a week. These findings underscore the political benefits of initiatives aimed at curbing air pollution, which can significantly reduce public complaints and bolster citizen satisfaction.