IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/tpr/restat/v106y2024i4p910-923.html

London Fog: A Century of Pollution and Mortality, 1866–1965

Author

Listed:
  • W. Walker Hanlon

    (Northwestern University, NBER, and CEPR)

Abstract

This study draws on London’s long experience with air pollution in order to improve our understanding of the overall effects of pollution exposure and how and why these effects evolve as locations develop. I compare uniquely detailed new mortality data covering 1866 to 1965 to the timing of London’s famous fog events, which trapped emissions in the city. I show that air pollution was a major contributor to mortality in London over this period and that it interacted strongly with specific infectious diseases. As a consequence of this interaction, reductions in the infectious disease burden substantially altered the health costs of pollution.

Suggested Citation

  • W. Walker Hanlon, 2024. "London Fog: A Century of Pollution and Mortality, 1866–1965," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 106(4), pages 910-923, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:tpr:restat:v:106:y:2024:i:4:p:910-923
    DOI: 10.1162/rest_a_01190
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1162/rest_a_01190
    Download Restriction: Access to PDF is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1162/rest_a_01190?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 look for a different version below or

    for a different version of it.

    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. Karen Clay & Joshua Lewis & Edson Severnini & Xiao Wang, 2024. "The Value of Health Insurance during a Crisis: Effects of Medicaid Implementation on Pandemic Influenza Mortality," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 106(5), pages 1393-1402, September.
    2. W Walker Hanlon, 2020. "Coal Smoke, City Growth, and the Costs of the Industrial Revolution," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 130(626), pages 462-488.
    3. H. Spencer Banzhaf & William Mathews & Randall Walsh, 2024. "Hell with the Lid Off: Racial Segregation and Environmental Equity in America’s Most Polluted City," NBER Working Papers 32950, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Alastair Ball, 2018. "Hidden Costs of the Great London Smog: Evidence from Missing Births," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 38(4), pages 1823-1830.
    5. Christian Ochsner & Lukas Schmid, 2025. "Pandemics’ Backlash: The Effects of the 1918 Influenza on Health Attitudes and Behavior," CESifo Working Paper Series 11903, CESifo.
    6. repec:ehl:lserod:128850 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Brian Beach & Karen Clay & Martin Saavedra, 2022. "The 1918 Influenza Pandemic and Its Lessons for COVID-19," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 60(1), pages 41-84, March.
    8. Clay, Karen & Lewis, Joshua & Severnini, Edson, 2019. "What explains cross-city variation in mortality during the 1918 influenza pandemic? Evidence from 438 U.S. cities," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 42-50.
    9. von Hinke, Stephanie & Sørensen, Emil N., 2023. "The long-term effects of early-life pollution exposure: Evidence from the London smog," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    10. Lavy, Victor & Rachkovski, Genia & Yoresh, Omry, 2025. "Heads up: Does air pollution cause workplace accidents?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 251(C).
    11. Hanlon, W. Walker & Hansen, Casper Worm & Kantor, Jake, 2021. "Temperature, Disease, and Death in London: Analyzing Weekly Data for the Century from 1866 to 1965," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 81(1), pages 40-80, March.
    12. Schneider, Eric B., 2021. "The effect of nutritional status on historical infectious disease morbidity: evidence from the London Foundling Hospital, 1892-1919," Economic History Working Papers 111030, London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • N00 - Economic History - - General - - - General

    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:tpr:restat:v:106:y:2024:i:4:p:910-923. 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: The MIT Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://direct.mit.edu/journals .

    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.