Conference Agenda
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).
Please note that all times are shown in the time zone of the conference. The current conference time is: 24th Aug 2026, 01:50:46am WEST
External resources will be made available 30 min before a session starts. You may have to reload the page to access the resources.
|
Daily Overview |
| Session | |
|
Egg-Timer: Air Pollution and Health Location: D-107 Session Chair: Robin Kottmann, RWI – Leibniz Institute for Economic Research | |
    | |
The Social Benefits of Desulfurizing the Coal Power Sector in a Developing Economy 1: Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, China; 2: Institute for Economic and Social Research, Jinan University, China; 3: School of Applied Economics, Renmin University of China, China; 4: National Center for Chronic and Noncommunicable Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, China This paper studies the pollution and health impacts of mandatory flue-gas desulfurization (FGD) at coal-fired power plants in China. Leveraging the staggered rollout of desulfurization mandates, we implement stacked difference-in-differences designs to estimate the effects on sulfur dioxide (SO\textsubscript{2}) pollution and respiratory system (RES) mortality. FGD installation leads to rapid and persistent reductions in local SO\textsubscript{2} and RES mortality, with no detectable effects on non-targeted pollutants or local economic development. Using FGD rollout as an instrument for SO\textsubscript{2}, we show that higher pollution causally increases respiratory mortality. Back-of-the-envelope calculations indicate that the monetized health benefits of desulfurization substantially exceed installation costs. The results demonstrate that environmental regulation can yield large health gains without impeding economic growth, offering policy-relevant evidence for pollution control in rapidly industrializing economies. | |