Where Is Pollution Moving? Environmental Markets and Environmental Justice
AEA Papers and Proceedings
vol. 111,
May 2021
(pp. 410-14)
Abstract
Do US air pollution offset markets disproportionately relocate pollution to or from low-income or minority communities? Concerns about an equal distribution of environmental quality across communities—environmental justice—have growing policy influence. We relate prices and quantities of offset transactions to the demographics of the communities surrounding polluting plants. We find little association of offset prices or offset-induced movements in pollution with the share of a community that is Black or Hispanic or with mean household income. This analysis of 12 prominent offset markets suggests that they do not substantially increase or decrease the equity of environmental outcomes.Citation
Shapiro, Joseph S., and Reed Walker. 2021. "Where Is Pollution Moving? Environmental Markets and Environmental Justice." AEA Papers and Proceedings, 111: 410-14. DOI: 10.1257/pandp.20211004Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- Q53 Air Pollution; Water Pollution; Noise; Hazardous Waste; Solid Waste; Recycling
- D63 Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
- J15 Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
- R12 Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity