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The changing nature of pollution, income and environmental inequality in the United States

Author

Listed:
  • Colmer, Jonathan
  • Qin, Suvy
  • Voorheis, John
  • Walker, Reed

Abstract

This paper uses administrative tax records linked to Census demographic data and high-resolution measures of fine small particulate (PM2.5) exposure to study the evolution of the Black-White pollution exposure gap over the past 40 years. In doing so, we focus on the various ways in which income may have contributed to these changes using a statistical decomposition. We decompose the overall change in the Black-White PM2.5 exposure gap into (1) components that stem from rank-preserving compression in the overall pollution distribution and (2) changes that stem from a reordering of Black and White households within the pollution distribution. We find a significant narrowing of the Black-White PM2.5 exposure gap over this time period that is overwhelmingly driven by rank-preserving changes rather than positional changes. However, the relative positions of Black and White households at the upper end of the pollution distribution have meaningfully shifted in the most recent years.

Suggested Citation

  • Colmer, Jonathan & Qin, Suvy & Voorheis, John & Walker, Reed, 2024. "The changing nature of pollution, income and environmental inequality in the United States," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 126758, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:126758
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    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/126758/
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Janet Currie & John Voorheis & Reed Walker, 2023. "What Caused Racial Disparities in Particulate Exposure to Fall? New Evidence from the Clean Air Act and Satellite-Based Measures of Air Quality," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 113(1), pages 71-97, January.
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    Cited by:

    1. Björn Bos & Moritz A. Drupp & Lutz Sager, 2025. "The Distributional Effects of Low Emission Zones: Who Benefits from Cleaner Air?," CESifo Working Paper Series 11739, CESifo.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    air pollution; income; environmental inequality; decomposition;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H00 - Public Economics - - General - - - General
    • H40 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - General
    • Q50 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - General

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