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Can Smartphone App Trainings Help Reduce Exposure to Air Pollution? Experimental Evidence from Bogotá

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  • Allen Blackman
  • Bridget Hoffmann

Abstract

We conduct a randomized controlled trial to evaluate the impact of training university students in Bogotá to use a smartphone app that displays real-time, location-specific air quality data. The training increased participants’ acquisition of information about air quality, their knowledge about avoidance behavior, and, most important, their reported avoidance behavior. Back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest that if scaled to the entire city of Bogotá, the training could reduce premature cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, and respiratory deaths by 51%–61% a year among the additional 3%–8% of the city’s population incentivized to undertake avoidance behavior, a benefit valued at US$11–$13 million.

Suggested Citation

  • Allen Blackman & Bridget Hoffmann, 2025. "Can Smartphone App Trainings Help Reduce Exposure to Air Pollution? Experimental Evidence from Bogotá," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 101(4), pages 499-520.
    • Handle: RePEc:uwp:landec:v:101:y:2025:i:4:p:499-520
    Note: DOI: https://doi.org/10.3368/le.101.4.030724-0022R1
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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • Q53 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Air Pollution; Water Pollution; Noise; Hazardous Waste; Solid Waste; Recycling
    • Q56 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environment and Development; Environment and Trade; Sustainability; Environmental Accounts and Accounting; Environmental Equity; Population Growth

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