External costs of air pollution in the United States

A study estimates economic damages due to air pollution from various economic sectors in the United States. Previous research has suggested the need to incorporate external costs of pollution into national accounts. To this end, Peter Tschofen, Inês L. Azevedo, and Nicholas Z. Muller updated existing damage estimates due to fine particulate matter for the United States using the Environmental Protection Agency's 2008 through 2014 National Emissions Inventory--the most recent comprehensive national emissions data available. The authors used multiple integrated assessment models to estimate monetized gross external damage (GED) by economic sector for the years 2008, 2011, and 2014 using emissions, mortality, and population data. Nationwide total GED attributable to economic activity fell by more than 20% between 2008 and 2014, but the decrease was not uniform across sectors. Utility sector GED fell by more than half during this time period, leaving agriculture with the largest GED of any sector as of 2014. Further, 75% of GED attributable to economic activity occurred in 4 economic sectors--agriculture, utilities, manufacturing, and transportation. Uncertainty in GED estimates was high for emissions from ground-level sources, which tend to be estimated rather than measured directly. According to the authors, the results suggest target areas for emissions reduction efforts and provide a starting point for further studies of particular industries or at different spatial scales.

Article #19-05030: "Fine particulate matter damages and value added in the US economy," by Peter Tschofen, Inês L. Azevedo, and Nicholas Z. Muller.

MEDIA CONTACT: Peter Tschofen, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA; tel: 646-407-0967; e-mail: ptschofen@cmu.edu; Nicholas Z. Muller, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA; tel: 802-989-0509; e-mail: nzm@andrew.cmu.edu

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