How Much Is a Cleaner Air Worth?

Dialogues économiques
MAY 11, 2021
It can provoke cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, contribute to climate change, impair the growth of crops, and damage buildings... Needless to say, air pollution causes a myriad of harmful effects. But how do you calculate the benefits associated with cleaner air when they do not come with a price tag? One way to do it is to estimate the amount we would be willing to pay to avoid associated deaths. And this is exactly what the economist Olivier Chanel did. Using research from Santé publique France, he expresses in euros the deaths that could be prevented by reducing air pollution.
Reference
Chanel O., Medina S., Pascal M., 2020, "Évaluation économique de la mortalité liée à la pollution atmosphérique en France", Journal de gestion et d'Economie de la santé, 38(2), 77-92.
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https://www.dialogueseconomiques.fr/en/article/how-much-cleaner-air-worth

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