Air Pollution And Indirect Losses Of Residents

China’s rapid economic growth over the past four decades has led to the rise of college education,increasing incomes and a booming housing market,but it has also resulted in severe air pollution.Air pollution not only poses a direct threaten to the health and life safety of urban residents,but also causes complex and hidden indirect losses to their studies,work and life through non-health channels.Today,with the emphasis on the"people-centered"development concept,how to develop low-cost and high-efficiency environmental policies to alleviate the extensive indirect losses caused by air pollution is a common challenge faced by scholars and policy makers.Based on international frontier research,this thesis attempted to introduce the concept of"Indirect Loss"to summarize the indirect loss caused by air pollution to residents.Given that education,work and housing welfare are not only the core content of individual welfare,but also as the typical representatives of human capital investment,labor productivity and consumption in economic activities.Therefore,this thesis selects examinations for higher education,labor supply and housing purchase decision as the analysis objects,quantifies the loss of educational opportunities,income and consumption welfare caused by exposure to air pollution.And further explore the complex influence mechanisms behind the indirect loss from the perspectives of cognitive performance,avoidance behavior and decision-making bias.The main conclusions of the empirical analysis include:（1）For every 10-unit increase in air pollution on the test day,the passing rate of the College English Test Band 6（CET6）for college students will decrease by 1.5-1.7%,and the total score will decrease by 1.5-1.7 points.Failure to pass CET6 reduces graduate education opportunities by 10.8%.Air pollution reduces students’cognitive abilities and the probability of entering graduate school,resulting in the loss of educational opportunities.（2）For every 10 units increase in air pollution,the daily labor output of delivery worker will decrease by 11-13 packages,and daily labor supply will decrease by 0.5-0.6 hours.Air pollution creates about 15,000-yuan income loss for each delivery worker per year,and the total annual income loss of across the country is as high as15.2 billion yuan.Air pollution reduces labor supply through avoidance behaviors,resulting in the loss of labor income.（3）For every 1ug/m³ increase in the PM_2.5concentration experienced by home buyers on the viewing day,the transaction unit price of the viewed house will increase by 3.6 yuan.On average,homebuyers who visited a house in a polluted day will paid an extra$19,000 for buying the house.Projection bias theory suggests that homebuyers who experience pollution will pay more for homes with anti-pollution properties.From the perspectives of education,labor and house purchase,this thesis conducts a quantitative analysis of the indirect losses caused by air pollution in the fields of cognition,labor and consumption.The results of this thesis reveal that the indirect loss effects of air pollution are widespread in common life,and a large number of hidden indirect losses may have not been revealed.This thesis extends the cognitive perspective on the impact of air pollution by grouping the non-health effects of air pollution into the framework of"indirect losses".This thesis also adds marginal contribution to existing research from three aspects:causality identification,core variable measurement and mechanism explanation,and enriches the dimension and impact channels of indirect loss.The quantitative analysis results also provide new insights and quantitative support for formulating environmental policies.