TY - JOUR
T1 - Air pollution and political trust in local government
T2 - evidence from China
AU - Yao, Yao
AU - Li, Xue
AU - Smyth, Russell
AU - Zhang, Lin
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank the editor and three anonymous referees for their valuable comments and suggestions. Yao Yao acknowledges the financial support from Shanghai Sailing Project by Shanghai Science and Technology Committee (Grant No. 20YF1434100 ), Shanghai Eastern Young Scholar program (Grant No. QD20200046 ). Lin Zhang gratefully acknowledges financial support from the Department of Science and Technology of Sichuan Province (Grant No. 2021JDR0180 ).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Elsevier Inc.
PY - 2022/9
Y1 - 2022/9
N2 - While it is well-established that air pollution damages health and inhibits productivity, the political cost of air pollution remains poorly understood. We estimate the causal effect of air pollution on political trust in local government in China, which underpins the stability of the authoritarian state. Combining a nationally representative longitudinal survey with satellite derived PM2.5 concentrations, we find that a one μg/m³ exogenous increase in PM2.5 concentrations, due to atmospheric thermal inversion, reduces trust in local government by 4.1 per cent of one standard deviation. This implies that if China were to reduce PM2.5 emissions to the annual standard of 35 μg/m³ mandated by the Chinese government, this would boost trust in local government by 21.2 per cent evaluated at the mean. We examine the underlying transmission channels and find that prolonged exposure to PM2.5 lowers citizens’ life satisfaction and evaluation of local government performance, induces adverse health effects, imposes additional financial burden and, albeit to a lesser extent, reduces household income.
AB - While it is well-established that air pollution damages health and inhibits productivity, the political cost of air pollution remains poorly understood. We estimate the causal effect of air pollution on political trust in local government in China, which underpins the stability of the authoritarian state. Combining a nationally representative longitudinal survey with satellite derived PM2.5 concentrations, we find that a one μg/m³ exogenous increase in PM2.5 concentrations, due to atmospheric thermal inversion, reduces trust in local government by 4.1 per cent of one standard deviation. This implies that if China were to reduce PM2.5 emissions to the annual standard of 35 μg/m³ mandated by the Chinese government, this would boost trust in local government by 21.2 per cent evaluated at the mean. We examine the underlying transmission channels and find that prolonged exposure to PM2.5 lowers citizens’ life satisfaction and evaluation of local government performance, induces adverse health effects, imposes additional financial burden and, albeit to a lesser extent, reduces household income.
KW - Air pollution
KW - CFPS
KW - China
KW - JEL classification: Q01
KW - Local government
KW - PM
KW - Political trust
KW - Q56
KW - Q58
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85137617825&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jeem.2022.102724
DO - 10.1016/j.jeem.2022.102724
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85137617825
SN - 0095-0696
VL - 115
JO - Journal of Environmental Economics and Management
JF - Journal of Environmental Economics and Management
M1 - 102724
ER -