When externalities collide: influenza and pollution

Zivin, Joshua Graff, Neidell, Matthew, Sanders, Nicholas and Singer, Gregor ORCID: 0000-0001-5917-0723 (2021) When externalities collide: influenza and pollution. Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment Working Paper, 364. Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK.

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Abstract

Influenza and air pollution each pose significant health risks with global economic consequences. Their shared etiological pathways present a case of compounding health risk via interacting externalities. Using instrumental variables based on changing wind direction, we show that increased levels of contemporaneous pollution increase influenza hospitalizations. We exploit random variation in effectiveness of the influenza vaccine as an additional instrument to show that vaccine protection neutralizes this relationship. Thus, pollution control and vaccination campaigns jointly provide greater returns than those implied by addressing either in isolation. We show the importance of this consideration in addressing observed gaps in influenza incidence by race.

Item Type:	Monograph (Working Paper)
Official URL:	https://www.lse.ac.uk/granthaminstitute/publicatio...
Additional Information:	© 2021 The Authors
Divisions:	Grantham Research Institute
Subjects:	R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine
JEL classification:	Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q5 - Environmental Economics > Q53 - Air Pollution; Water Pollution; Noise; Hazardous Waste; Solid Waste; Recycling I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I1 - Health > I12 - Health Production: Nutrition, Mortality, Morbidity, Suicide, Substance Abuse and Addiction, Disability, and Economic Behavior I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I1 - Health > I11 - Analysis of Health Care Markets
Date Deposited:	01 Jul 2021 10:45
Last Modified:	01 Nov 2024 04:10
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/110964

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