Essays on the economics of pollution prevention
type: CreativeWork
description: Chapter 1 studies unintended consequences of intermittent air pollution monitoring. Compliance monitoring of environmental standards is often conducted intermittently due to its expense. Intermittent monitoring, however, may encourage polluters to show compliance during monitoring, but to increase polluting activities at other times. I document strategic responses to a cyclical, once-every-six-day monitoring schedule under a national outdoor air quality regulation. Using an independent satellite-based measure of air pollution, I show that air quality where this cyclical monitoring takes place is significantly worse on unmonitored days. Larger effects are observed in areas that (1) are out-of-compliance with air quality standards, and thus face steeper potential penalties, (2) have a high concentration of certain industries, such as wood product manufacturing, and (3) are intersected by highways. Consistent with this last finding, I show that local governments are more likely to issue air quality warnings to coordinate reduced automobile usage and outdoor activities on days when pollution monitoring is scheduled. Chapter 2 studies noise pollution and health effects of wind farms. Current technology uses wind turbines’ blade aerodynamics to convert wind energy to electricity. This process generates significant low-frequency noise that reportedly results in residents’ sleep disruptions, among other annoyance symptoms. However, the existence and the importance of wind farms’ health effects on a population scale remain unknown. Exploiting over 800 utility-scale wind turbine installation events in the United States from 2001-2013, I show robust evidence that wind farms lead to significant increases in suicide. I explore three indirect tests of the role of low-frequency noise exposure. First, suicide effect concentrates among at-risk individuals to noise-induced illnesses, such as the elderly. Second, the suicide effect is driven by days when wind blows in directions that …
abstract: Chapter 1 studies unintended consequences of intermittent air pollution monitoring. Compliance monitoring of environmental standards is often conducted intermittently due to its expense. Intermittent monitoring, however, may encourage polluters to show compliance during monitoring, but to increase polluting activities at other times. I document strategic responses to a cyclical, once-every-six-day monitoring schedule under a national outdoor air quality regulation. Using an independent satellite-based measure of air pollution, I show that air quality where this cyclical monitoring takes place is significantly worse on unmonitored days. Larger effects are observed in areas that (1) are out-of-compliance with air quality standards, and thus face steeper potential penalties, (2) have a high concentration of certain industries, such as wood product manufacturing, and (3) are intersected by highways. Consistent with this last finding, I show that local governments are more likely to issue air quality warnings to coordinate reduced automobile usage and outdoor activities on days when pollution monitoring is scheduled. Chapter 2 studies noise pollution and health effects of wind farms. Current technology uses wind turbines’ blade aerodynamics to convert wind energy to electricity. This process generates significant low-frequency noise that reportedly results in residents’ sleep disruptions, among other annoyance symptoms. However, the existence and the importance of wind farms’ health effects on a population scale remain unknown. Exploiting over 800 utility-scale wind turbine installation events in the United States from 2001-2013, I show robust evidence that wind farms lead to significant increases in suicide. I explore three indirect tests of the role of low-frequency noise exposure. First, suicide effect concentrates among at-risk individuals to noise-induced illnesses, such as the elderly. Second, the suicide effect is driven by days when wind blows in directions that …
author: Zou, Yongchen
language: en
keywords: Environmental economics, Government policy, Pollution prevention, Pollution monitoring, Strategic response, Gaming, Air pollution, Noise pollution, Satellite, Wind turbine syndrome, Wildfire smoke
date published: 2018-09-04T20:47:17Z
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:24:38Z
provider: University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/2142/101325