Empirical essays on local pollution and environmental policies

Pollution externalities have received great attention in environmental economics and, with mitigation policies on local pollutants becoming increasingly stringent in recent years, this topic will become even more prevalent in the future. Hence, it is of crucial importance to quantify the damages incurred by individuals and firms from local pollution and to improve the general understanding of the costs and benefits of associated abatement policies. This dissertation explores these interrelated aspects: First, by assessing the effectiveness of local pollution abatement policies based on the example of German low emission zones. Second, by disentangling the direct and indirect effects of air pollution on the well-being of individuals. Third, by analyzing the impact of pollution externalities on labor market outcomes of employees, using the example of hydraulic fracturing in the US. Fourth, by quantifying the impact of groundwater nitrate pollution on the cost of drinking water supply in Germany. Each aspect is explored through micro-econometric methods based on extensive data sets on individuals and firms. Three chapters focus on recovering causal effects, where identification stems from temporal and geographical variations in pollution exposure and implementations of specific policy measures.

Author dc:creator

• Wägner, Nicole

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Hirschhausen, Christian von
• Cullmann, Astrid

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language.iso

en

Identifier URI

https://doi.org/10.14279/depositonce-16247

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:depositonce.tu-berlin.de:11303/17466