EDE┃李文博: The Effect of Air Pollution on China's Internal Migration

时间:2023-01-11

 

中文摘要:

我国居民是否从空气质量差的城市迁徙到了空气质量好的城市?本文接驳了从2003年至2016年的城市空气污染数据和《中国劳动力动态调查》,并估计了一个线性模型和一个条件逻辑模型,从实证上回答了这一问题。通过使用由风从远方带来的空气污染作为当地空气污染的工具变量,本文解决了一个城市的空气污染和当地的经济活动相关,而当地的经济活动又与迁徙相关的内生性问题。文章区分了部分家庭成员的迁出和全家的迁出,并发现前者比后者对空气污染更敏感。当空气污染增加时,净迁入人口的减少不仅源于总迁入人口的减少,而且源于总迁出人口的增加。文章还发现,因空气污染而迁出的移居者可能带上了他们的子女,而他们年迈的父母当中却有一些独守空巢。

 

研究意义:

本研究表明迁徙可以缓解空气污染对居民健康造成的损害。这意味着,如果没有迁徙这一选择,人们可能会采取戴口罩、购买空气净化器、给当地政府施压等代价更高的应对方式,而他们的福利也会随之下降。当一个城市的空气污染增加时,对于一个当地的家庭而言,只有部分家庭成员迁出了该市,这可能是因为不同年龄的居民对于空气污染的敏感度不同。本文发现因空气污染而迁出的移居者可能带上了他们的子女,而他们年迈的父母当中却有一些独守空巢,从而验证了这一假设。这意味着空气污染可能通过迁徙改变了不同年龄段的人口的空间分布,而迁徙让迁出地的空气污染对迁出地和迁入地均有损害。同时,年迈的父母没有因为空气污染而离开他们的城市,这意味着空气污染可能导致家人分居两地,从而增加他们的精神负担。文章还发现,在一个人的迁徙决策当中,空气污染不仅在他选择离开后决定了移居的目的地,而且还直接影响了他选择离开的意愿。这意味着一个城市可以通过改善当地的空气质量来挽留人才。总而言之,本文强调了防控空气污染的重要性,对于污染严重的城市尤为如此。这个目标的实现将揭示迁徙的利与弊,并决定迁徙将如何影响环境资源的分配和区域协调可持续发展。

 

The Effect of Air Pollution on China’s Internal Migration

Environment and Development Economics

Wenbo Li

Abstract:

Have people in China moved from more polluted cities to less polluted ones? We merge city-level air pollution data from 2003 to 2016 with migration data from a nationally representative sample. We estimate a linear model and a conditional logit model, and employ air pollution from distant sources carried by the wind as an instrument for local air pollution to address the potential concern that air pollution is endogenous to local economic activities. We make a distinction between out-migration that left some family members behind and whole-household out-migration, and discover that the former was more responsive to air pollution than the latter. The decline in net in-migration in response to an increase in air pollution was driven by both a decrease in gross in-migration and an increase in gross out-migration. We find suggestive evidence that out-migrants brought their children with them, but some aged parents were left behind.

 

文章全文参见链接:

https://www.doi.org/10.1017/S1355770X22000377