Abstract
In light of the existing preliminary evidence of a link between Covid-19 and poor air quality, which is largely based upon correlations, we estimate the relationship between long term air pollution exposure and Covid-19 in 355 municipalities in the Netherlands. Using detailed data we find compelling evidence of a positive relationship between air pollution, and particularly PM 2.5 concentrations, and Covid-19 cases, hospital admissions and deaths. This relationship persists even after controlling for a wide range of explanatory variables. Our results indicate that, other things being equal, a municipality with 1 μg/m 3 more PM 2.5 concentrations will have 9.4 more Covid-19 cases, 3.0 more hospital admissions, and 2.3 more deaths. This relationship between Covid-19 and air pollution withstands a number of sensitivity and robustness exercises including instrumenting pollution to mitigate potential endogeneity in the measurement of pollution and modelling spatial spillovers using spatial econometric techniques.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 581–610 |
| Number of pages | 30 |
| Journal | Environmental and Resource Economics |
| Volume | 76 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 4 Aug 2020 |
Bibliographical note
© The Author(s) 2020.Keywords
- Covid-19
- Air pollution
- Spatial spillovers
- Netherlands
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Economics and Econometrics
- Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law
