主题｜Topic：The Effect of Air Pollution on Migration: Evidence from China
时间｜Time：10月09号（周二）｜Oct. 09th (Tuesday), 10：30 - 11：30 AM
地点｜Venue：文添楼401教室｜Lecture Room 401，WENTIAN
主讲｜Speaker
张鹏老师毕业于美国加州大学圣巴巴拉分校，获经济学博士学位，现为香港理工大学助理教授，主要研究方向为环境经济学、发展经济学和应用微观计量经济学。研究成果发表于Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 等期刊上。
研究领域｜Research Interests
Environmental Economics, Development Economics, and Applied Microeconometrics
环境经济学、发展经济学和应用微观计量经济学
摘要｜Abstract
This paper looks at the effects of air pollution on migration in China using changes in the average strength of thermal inversions over five-year periods as a source of exogenous variation for medium-run air pollution levels. Our findings suggest that air pollution is responsible for large changes in inflows and outflows of migration in China. More specifically, we find that independent changes in air pollution of the magnitude that occurred in China in the course of our study (between 1996 and 2010) are capable of reducing floating migration inflows by 50 percent and of reducing population through net outmigration by 5 percent in a given county. We find that these inflows are primarily driven by well educated people at the beginning of their professional careers, leading to substantial changes in the sociodemographic composition of the population and labor force of Chinese counties. Our results are robust to different specifications, including simple counts of inversions as instruments, different weather controls, and different forms of error variance.
