RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 An Econometric Approach toward Identifying the Relationship between Vehicular Traffic and Air Quality in Beijing
JF Land Economics
JO Land Econ
FD University of Wisconsin Press
SP 333
OP 348
DO 10.3368/le.96.3.333
VO 96
IS 3
A1 Chen, Shuai
A1 Qin, Ping
A1 Tan-Soo, Jie-Sheng
A1 Xu, Jintao
A1 Yang, Jun
YR 2020
UL http://le.uwpress.org/content/96/3/333.abstract
AB Earlier studies that evaluated the impact of vehicular emissions on urban air quality often reached mixed conclusions, providing little guidance to city planners seeking solutions to the ever-growing problem of air pollution. In this paper, we combine the strengths of earlier studies with hourly-level data to reexamine the causal relationship between traffic congestion and ambient air quality in Beijing. We find that around 33% to 57% of ambient air pollution in Beijing can be attributed to vehicular emissions. However, this average figure is masked by nonlinearity, suggesting that policy makers should focus their efforts on alleviating areas with heaviest congestion to improve air quality. (JEL Q53, Q58)