title: Economic evaluation of health losses from air pollution in Beijing, China.
abstract: Aggravated air pollution in Beijing, China has caused serious health concern. This paper comprehensively evaluates the health losses from illness and premature death caused by air pollution in monetary terms. We use the concentration of PM10 as an indicator of the pollution since it constitutes the primary pollutant in Beijing. By our estimation, air pollution in Beijing caused a health loss equivalent to Ұ583.02 million or 0.03 % of its GDP. Most of the losses took the form of depreciation in human capital that resulted from premature death. The losses from premature deaths were most salient for people of either old or young ages, with the former group suffering from the highest mortality rates and the latter group the highest per capital losses of human capitals from premature death. Policies that target on PM10 emission reduction, urban vegetation expansion, and protection of vulnerable groups are all proposed as possible solutions to air pollution risks in Beijing.
authors.affiliation: School of Business Administration, China University of Petroleum-Beijing, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Xiaoli
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: School of Economics and Management, Beihang University, 37 Xueyuan Road, Beijing, 100191, China. xueying@buaa.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Xueying
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: School of Economics and Management, North China Electric Power University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: School of Economics and Management, North China Electric Power University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Chunyang
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Fan
mesh_terms: D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000191:economics; D000397:Air Pollution / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D000068476:Beijing; D002681:China; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D006801:Humans; D018803:Models, Economic; D009026:Mortality; D052638:Particulate Matter / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000191:economics; D011634:Public Health / Q000191:economics*
chemical_list: D000393:Air Pollutants; D052638:Particulate Matter
keywords: Air pollution; Corrected human capital method; Health damage