%0 Report
        %A Colmer, Jonathan
%A Lin, Dajun
%A Liu, Siying
%A Shimshack, Jay
        %T Why Are Pollution Damages Lower in Developed Countries? Insights from High-Income, High-Particulate Matter Hong Kong
        %D 2021
        %8 2021 Jul
        %I Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        %C Bonn
        %7 IZA Discussion Paper
        %N 14591
        %U https://www.iza.org/publications/dp14591
        %X Conventional wisdom suggests that marginal damages from particulate matter pollution are high in less-developed countries because they are highly polluted. Using administrative data on the universe of births and deaths, we explore birthweight and mortality effects of gestational particulate matter exposure in high-pollution yet high-income Hong Kong. The marginal effects of particulates on birthweight are large but we fail to detect an effect on neonatal mortality. We interpret our stark mortality results in a comparative analysis of pollution-mortality relationships across studies. We provide early evidence that marginal mortality damages from pollution are high in less-developed countries because they are less developed, not because they are more polluted.
        %K particulate matter
%K early childhood
%K comparative analysis