Data and code for: Ambiguous Air Pollution Effects of China's COVID-19 Lockdown

Principal Investigator(s):  View help for Principal Investigator(s) Douglas Almond, Columbia University and NBER; Xinming Du, Columbia University; Valerie Karplus, Carnegie Mellon University; Shuang Zhang, University of Colorado Boulder and NBER

Version:  View help for Version V1

Name File Type Size Last Modified
  datasets 01/07/2021 07:37:AM
  do files 01/07/2021 07:29:AM
ReadMe.pdf application/pdf 44.1 KB 01/09/2021 11:16:PM

Project Citation: 

Almond, Douglas, Du, Xinming, Karplus, Valerie, and Zhang, Shuang. Data and code for: Ambiguous Air Pollution Effects of China’s COVID-19 Lockdown . Nashville, TN: American Economic Association [publisher], 2021. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2021-04-29. https://doi.org/10.3886/E130381V1

Project Description

Summary:  View help for Summary
This is data and code accompanying the paper "Ambiguous Air Pollution Effects of China's COVID-19 Lockdown".

Paper abstract:
Reductions in ambient pollution have been suggested as a "silver lining" to the COVID-19 Pandemic. We analyze China's pollution monitor data and account for the large annual improvements in air quality following Lunar New Year (LNY), which essentially coincided with lockdowns. With the exception of NO2, China's air quality improvements in 2020 are smaller than we should expect near the pandemic's epicenter: Hubei province. We see smaller improvements in SO2 than expected while ozone concentrations roughly doubled in Hubei. Similar patterns are found for the six provinces neighboring Hubei. We conclude that COVID-19 had ambiguous impacts on China's air quality.
Funding Sources:  View help for Funding Sources National Science Foundation (SES-1658888)

Scope of Project

JEL Classification:  View help for JEL Classification
      O13 Economic Development: Agriculture; Natural Resources; Energy; Environment; Other Primary Products
      Q53 Air Pollution; Water Pollution; Noise; Hazardous Waste; Solid Waste; Recycling


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V1 [2021-04-29]

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