Estimating avoidance behavior from human mobility
- UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
- Nana Boakyewaa Addai (Creator)
- Institution
- The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
- Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
- Advisor
- Martin Andersen
Abstract: The cost of damages caused by air pollution runs into billions of dollars annually. In measuring costs, researchers hardly ever include the cost of changes in behavior as a result of air pollution. Because these costs represent a loss in surplus and avoidance behavior affects the severity of health effects caused by air pollution, estimates of the effects of air pollution that do not take avoidance behavior into account are most likely biased downwards. To obtain unbiased cost estimates, some measure of avoidance behavior is needed in cost calculations for the effects of air pollution. It is important for policy makers to know the full costs of air pollution so that they can make decisions on whether to focus environmental policy on air pollution reduction or on encouraging behavior that reduces exposure to air pollution. In this paper, I measure avoidance behavior by studying changes in human mobility patterns in response to changes in reported air quality indexes. Using data on people’s mobility patterns from SafeGraph and historical air quality data from the EPA, I measure how much people change the time they spend at home, the time they spend away from home, and the distance they travel from home in response to the EPA’s air quality index. Employing a control function model to correct for selection and/or endogeneity, I find that people are on average expected to spend 8 more minutes at home, spend 10 less minutes away from home, and travel 385 meters less away from home on days of unhealthy air quality than on days of good air quality. This provides evidence of avoidance behavior in response to poor air quality.
Estimating avoidance behavior from human mobility
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Created on 12/1/2023
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Additional Information
- Publication
- Dissertation
- Language: English
- Date: 2023
- Keywords
- Air quality, Avoidance behavior, Endogeneity, Human mobility
- Subjects
- Air $x Pollution $x Economic aspects
- Human behavior $x Economic aspects
- Avoidance (Psychology) $x Economic aspects