Hazardous sites exposure on poverty effects: "coming to the nuisance" phenomenon?

Beyond monetary disadvantage, according to extensive literature, poverty is associated with an increased risk of exposure to various environmental nuisances. In this study, we assess the relative effect of exposure on poverty and its intensity in metropolitan France, seeking to identify the causal mechanism behind it. To achieve this, we utilize socio-economic data from 2,287,871 200-meter square geographic units published by Insee and the location of 3,895 E-PRTR sites. We employ Antle (1983)'s statistical moments approach to analyze the effect of exposure on poverty and its intensity. We also evaluate the relative effect of exposure on the number of poor households and the growth in the number of poor households. Our findings suggest that exposed urban and peri-urban areas are associated with increased poverty levels, accompanied by heightened poverty intensity. In contrast, exposed rural areas exhibit lower poverty and experience less intensification of poverty. Moreover, on a national scale, past exposure is associated with a higher number of poor households and an increased trend, highlighting a "coming to the nuisance" mechanism for poor households.