One “silver lining” of the COVID-19 pandemic has been the reduction in air pollution that followed lockdowns. Unfortunately, this unintended air pollution decline will likely be short-lived. As regions begin to recover their economies, travel and industrial activity will increase the ambient pollutants quickly offsetting the improvement in air quality. Therefore, it is urgent to clarify the causal impact of reopening an economy on air quality during COVID-19. Based on city-level daily air quality data in China, this paper is the first to empirically analyze the causal effect of reopening the economy in the provincial capital Lanzhou on concentrations of four air pollutants using the synthetic control method. The results show that the reopening caused a significant increase in the concentration of NO2 by as much as 30 μg/m3 (an increase of 75% from the lockdown level) and a significant increase in O3 concentrations by 60μg/m3 (a 60% increase) which peaked on the 6th day after the restart. The reopening also led to significant fluctuations in SO2 and CO concentrations. This study contains useful conclusions by providing timely and reliable causal evidence on the lasting impact of COVID-19 on air quality.
| Published in | Journal of Health and Environmental Research (Volume 7, Issue 2) |
| DOI | 10.11648/j.jher.20210702.12 |
| Page(s) | 88-98 |
| Creative Commons |
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Copyright |
Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group |
COVID-19, Air Quality, Reopening Economies, Synthetic Control Method
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APA Style
Xiaoxuan Yang. (2021). COVID-19 Cannot Sustainably Improve Air Quality: Evidence from Reopening an Economy. Journal of Health and Environmental Research, 7(2), 88-98. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jher.20210702.12
ACS Style
Xiaoxuan Yang. COVID-19 Cannot Sustainably Improve Air Quality: Evidence from Reopening an Economy. J. Health Environ. Res. 2021, 7(2), 88-98. doi: 10.11648/j.jher.20210702.12
AMA Style
Xiaoxuan Yang. COVID-19 Cannot Sustainably Improve Air Quality: Evidence from Reopening an Economy. J Health Environ Res. 2021;7(2):88-98. doi: 10.11648/j.jher.20210702.12
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Download@article{10.11648/j.jher.20210702.12,
author = {Xiaoxuan Yang},
title = {COVID-19 Cannot Sustainably Improve Air Quality: Evidence from Reopening an Economy},
journal = {Journal of Health and Environmental Research},
volume = {7},
number = {2},
pages = {88-98},
doi = {10.11648/j.jher.20210702.12},
url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jher.20210702.12},
eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.jher.20210702.12},
abstract = {One “silver lining” of the COVID-19 pandemic has been the reduction in air pollution that followed lockdowns. Unfortunately, this unintended air pollution decline will likely be short-lived. As regions begin to recover their economies, travel and industrial activity will increase the ambient pollutants quickly offsetting the improvement in air quality. Therefore, it is urgent to clarify the causal impact of reopening an economy on air quality during COVID-19. Based on city-level daily air quality data in China, this paper is the first to empirically analyze the causal effect of reopening the economy in the provincial capital Lanzhou on concentrations of four air pollutants using the synthetic control method. The results show that the reopening caused a significant increase in the concentration of NO2 by as much as 30 μg/m3 (an increase of 75% from the lockdown level) and a significant increase in O3 concentrations by 60μg/m3 (a 60% increase) which peaked on the 6th day after the restart. The reopening also led to significant fluctuations in SO2 and CO concentrations. This study contains useful conclusions by providing timely and reliable causal evidence on the lasting impact of COVID-19 on air quality.},
year = {2021}
}
TY - JOUR T1 - COVID-19 Cannot Sustainably Improve Air Quality: Evidence from Reopening an Economy AU - Xiaoxuan Yang Y1 - 2021/04/07 PY - 2021 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jher.20210702.12 DO - 10.11648/j.jher.20210702.12 T2 - Journal of Health and Environmental Research JF - Journal of Health and Environmental Research JO - Journal of Health and Environmental Research SP - 88 EP - 98 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2472-3592 UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jher.20210702.12 AB - One “silver lining” of the COVID-19 pandemic has been the reduction in air pollution that followed lockdowns. Unfortunately, this unintended air pollution decline will likely be short-lived. As regions begin to recover their economies, travel and industrial activity will increase the ambient pollutants quickly offsetting the improvement in air quality. Therefore, it is urgent to clarify the causal impact of reopening an economy on air quality during COVID-19. Based on city-level daily air quality data in China, this paper is the first to empirically analyze the causal effect of reopening the economy in the provincial capital Lanzhou on concentrations of four air pollutants using the synthetic control method. The results show that the reopening caused a significant increase in the concentration of NO2 by as much as 30 μg/m3 (an increase of 75% from the lockdown level) and a significant increase in O3 concentrations by 60μg/m3 (a 60% increase) which peaked on the 6th day after the restart. The reopening also led to significant fluctuations in SO2 and CO concentrations. This study contains useful conclusions by providing timely and reliable causal evidence on the lasting impact of COVID-19 on air quality. VL - 7 IS - 2 ER -
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