Download pdf
The Economic Impact of Air Pollution on Economic Growth
- 1 Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Air pollution is a substantial risk to human health in the 21st century. The World Health Organization reports that merely 1 in 10 individuals reside in regions with air quality below recommended standards, resulting in 7 million deaths each year - one in eight fatalities worldwide. The article examines the complex relationship between air pollution and economic growth, emphasizing the effects of declining air quality on economic development. This study aims to fill this vacuum by examining the detrimental effects of air pollution on China's economic growth, particularly concerning PM2.5 and other pollutants. The findings suggest that pollution significantly hampers growth, causing losses in productivity, health, and economic activities across several sectors. Additionally, the study reviews air quality regulations in Europe, highlighting the economic benefits of stricter pollution controls. The report finishes by highlighting the necessity for more stringent policies to reduce pollution in order to foster sustainable economic growth.
Keywords
air pollution, PM2.5, economic growth, GDP
[1]. Wang, S. et al. (2024) ‘The costs, health and economic impact of air pollution control strategies: a systematic review’, Global Health Research and Policy, 9(30). Available at: https://doi.org/10.1186/s41256-024-00373-y (Accessed: 12 September 2024).
[2]. Dechezleprêtre, A., Rivers, N. and Stadler, B. (2020) The Economic Cost of Air Pollution: Evidence from Europe. OECD Economics Department Working Papers No. 1584. Available at: https://dx.doi.org/10.1787/56119490-en (Accessed: 12 September 2024).
[3]. Yang, T., Matus, K., Paltsev, S. and Reilly, J. (2005) Economic Benefits of Air Pollution Regulation in the USA: An Integrated Approach, MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change. Available at: http://MIT.edu/globalchange/ (Accessed: 12 September 2024).
[4]. Dong, D., Xu, B., Shen, N. and He, Q. (2021) 'The Adverse Impact of Air Pollution on China’s Economic Growth'. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3390/su13169056 (Accessed: 12 September 2024).
[5]. Kovari Zaim, K. (1999) 'Modified GDP Through Health Cost Analysis of Air Pollution: The Case of Turkey', Environmental Management, 23(2), pp. 271–277.
[6]. Matus, K.J. (2005) Health Impacts from Urban Air Pollution in China: The Burden to the Economy and the Benefits of Policy.
[7]. Sun, R. and Gu, D. (2008) 'Air Pollution, Economic Development of Communities, and Health Status Among the Elderly in Urban China', American Journal of Epidemiology. pp. 1311–1318. Available at: https://academic.oup.com/aje/article/168/11/1311/121917 (Accessed: 12 September 2024).
[8]. Cui, L. et al. (2020) ‘Analyses of air pollution control measures and co-benefits in the heavily air-polluted Jinan city of China, 2013–2017’. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-62475-0 (Accessed: 12 September 2024).
[9]. Mujtaba, G. and Shahzad, S.J.H. (2020) ‘Air pollutants, economic growth, and public health: implications for sustainable development in OECD countries’, Environmental Science and Pollution Research. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-11212-1 (Accessed: 12 September 2024).
[10]. McKinley, G.A. et al. (2005) ‘Quantification of local and global benefits from air pollution control in Mexico City’, Environmental Science & Technology, 39(7), pp. 1954-1961. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1021/es035183e (Accessed: 12 September 2024).
Cite this article
Wei,Z. (2024). The Economic Impact of Air Pollution on Economic Growth. Advances in Economics, Management and Political Sciences,134,75-80.
Data availability
The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study will be available from the authors upon reasonable request.
Disclaimer/Publisher's Note
The statements, opinions and data contained in all publications are solely those of the individual author(s) and contributor(s) and not of EWA Publishing and/or the editor(s). EWA Publishing and/or the editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury to people or property resulting from any ideas, methods, instructions or products referred to in the content.
About volume
Volume title: Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Financial Technology and Business Analysis
© 2024 by the author(s). Licensee EWA Publishing, Oxford, UK. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and
conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license. Authors who
publish this series agree to the following terms:
1. Authors retain copyright and grant the series right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this
series.
2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the series's published
version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial
publication in this series.
3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and
during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See
Open access policy for details).