Beyond Particulate Matter : New Evidence on the Causal Effects of Air Pollution on Mortality

The globally surging demand for electricity increases coal consumption and sulfur dioxide (SO2) pollution. However, the causal evidence of the effects of SO2 pollution on health is scarce, especially in developing countries. We leverage a large national environmental policy implemented to reduce SO2 emissions in China to estimate the impacts of SO2 on mortality. We find that 1-ug/m3 reduction in SO2 concentrations leads to 1.9 fewer deaths per 100,000 children under 5 years old (1.2% decrease) and 21 fewer cardiorespiratory deaths per 100,000 people aged 60 years and above (1.1% decrease) annually. A back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests that the total health benefits of the environmental policy outweigh its economic costs. The results are consistent across various robustness checks