Overview and details of the sessions of this conference. Please select a date or location to show only sessions at that day or location. Please select a single session for detailed view (with abstracts and downloads if available).
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The Unseen Pain of the Vietnam War: Long Term Effects of Agent Orange on Labor Market Outcomes
Po Yin Wong, Luu Duc Toan Huynh
Queen Mary University of London
Discussant: Benedikt Janzen (University of Passau)
Using the nearest distances to Northern Vietnamese Army base as an instrumental variable for exposure to Agent Orange, we investigate its long-term effects on education and labor market outcomes of affected individuals in Vietnam. Our findings reveal that a one-unit increase in the exposure score at the commune level is associated with a significant reduction in education attainment, a decrease of 1.7 working days per month, and a reduction of 0.4 working hours per day. These effects are particularly
pronounced among individuals who were born and continued to live in high-exposure areas, with persistent adverse impacts observed among their children as well. Our results remain robust after controlling for income and accounting for potential confounders. Furthermore, we find that exposure to Agent Orange leads to a persistent reduction in household and labor income by approximately 25%, highlighting the need for policies to address the long term and intergenerational socioeconomic effects of Agent Orange on the Vietnamese population.
Is air pollution keeping us up at night?
Patrick Bigler1, Benedikt Janzen2
1University of Lausanne, Switzerland; 2University of Passau, Germany
Discussant: Moritz Drupp (Universität Hamburg)
Surprisingly little is known about the causal impact of air pollution on human sleep. Using daily district-level data on sleep duration collected by half a million consumer wearables in Germany from 2020 to 2022, we find that even low levels of particulate matter air pollution adversely impact human sleep. We document that a 10 ppm increase in the average daily PM10 concentration reduces sleep duration on average by 1.1 minutes. To strengthen the causal interpretation of our findings, we employ an instrumental variables approach, using wind as a predictor for local air pollution. Although the effects we find are modest, the critical role of sleep in human well-being underscores the substantial social burden of sleep loss caused by air pollution. Our findings offer a potential mechanism linking air pollution to a wide range of human outcomes.
The distributional effects of low emission zones: Who benefits from cleaner air?
Bos Björn1, Drupp Moritz2, Sager Lutz3
1Universität Hamburg, Germany; 2ETH Zürich; 3ESSEC Business School
Discussant: Ivan Ackermann (University of Bern)
Low emission zones (LEZ) represent a key environmental policy instrument to address air pollution in cities. LEZs have reduced air pollution and associated health damages in regulated areas, but it remains unclear who has benefited from cleaner air. To examine the distributional effects of LEZs, we combine gridded data on resident characteristics, including income and a proxy for ethnicity, with high-resolution estimates of fine particle (PM2.5) concentrations in Germany, the country with the highest number of LEZs. We estimate heterogeneous treatment effects with a difference-in-differences approach and show that PM2.5 pollution reductions are distributed unequally across society. While residents with German name origins experience larger improvements within LEZs, residents with foreign names disproportionately live in LEZs and thus benefit more when assessed at a nationwide scale. Monetizing air quality benefits following governmental guidance, we find that they are distributed pro-poor within LEZs, disproportionately benefiting lower-income residents. From a nationwide perspective, benefits are distributed almost proportionally although the sign is sensitive to how benefits from cleaner air scale with income. Overall, our results suggest that LEZs have nuanced distributional implications that differ sharply between a national perspective and local assessments that focus on effects within LEZs.
Perception vs. Reality: The Air Pollution Gap and Socioeconomic Status∗
Ivan Ackermann
University of Bern, Switzerland
Discussant: Po Yin Wong (Queen Mary University of London)
The literature indicates that air pollution disproportionately affects socioeconom-
ically disadvantaged groups, who experience higher exposure levels. Additionally, it
suggests vagely that a discrepancy exists between perceived and measured air pollution.
Linking survey and air quality data, this study examines this perception gap, confirm-
ing that lower-income individuals are more likely to feel affected, while individuals
in countries with high measured air pollution do not always report feeling impacted.
Exploiting natural variation in coal-fired power plant operating days and London’s
air pollution alerts, this study evaluates how interventions enhance awareness of air
quality and reduce the perception gap through channels of information and exposure.
The findings will determine whether these measures not only improve objective air
quality but also align public perceptions with reality, thereby mitigating disparities
across socioeconomic groups. The results offer actionable insights for policies aimed at
promoting environmental equity and fostering informed decision-making.
