Abstract
Little evidence currently exists on the effects of COVID-19 on air quality in poorer countries, where most air pollution-linked deaths occur. We offer the first study that examines the pandemic's impacts on improving air quality in Vietnam, a lower-middle income country with worsening air pollution. Employing the Regression Discontinuity Design method to analyze a rich database that we compile from satellite air pollution data and data from various other sources, we find the concentration of NO2 to decrease by 24 to 32 percent two weeks after the COVID-19 lockdown.While this finding is robust to different measures of air quality and model specifications, the positive effects of the lockdown appear to dissipate after ten weeks. We also find that mobility restrictions are a potential channel for improved air quality. Finally, our back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest that two weeks after the lockdown, the economic gains from better air quality are roughly $0.6 billion US dollars.
Highlights
The COVID-19 pandemic has been recognized as a global health catastrophe that resulted in more than 800,000 deaths worldwide between late 2019 and August 2020
Each of the 24 cells in this table represents the impacts of the lockdown estimated from a separate regression, with the bandwidth shown in the column headings and the functional form of the running variable shown in the row headings
Together with economic growth, Vietnam has witnessed rising high levels of air pollution, which can lead to public health challenges
Summary
The Beneficial Impacts of COVID-19 Lockdowns on Air Pollution: Evidence from Vietnam. Any opinions expressed in this paper are those of the author(s) and not those of IZA. Research published in this series may include views on policy, but IZA takes no institutional policy positions. The IZA research network is committed to the IZA Guiding Principles of Research Integrity. The IZA Institute of Labor Economics is an independent economic research institute that conducts research in labor economics and offers evidence-based policy advice on labor market issues. IZA Discussion Papers often represent preliminary work and are circulated to encourage discussion. Citation of such a paper should account for its provisional character. A revised version may be available directly from the author
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