Socioeconomic Disparities in the Effects of Pollution on Spread of Covid-19: Evidence from US Counties

Osvalso Allen, Ava Brown and Ersong Wang

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: This paper explores disparities in the effect of pollution on confirmed cases of Covid-19 based on counties’ socioeconomic and demographic characteristics. Using data on all US counties on a daily basis over the year 2020 and applying a rich panel data fixed effect model, we document that: 1) there are discernible social and demographic disparities in the spread of Covid-19. Blacks, low educated, and poorer people are at higher risks of being infected by the new disease. 2) The criteria pollutants including Ozone, CO, PM10, and PM2.5 have the potential to accelerate the outbreak of the novel coronavirus. 3) The disadvantaged population is more vulnerable to the effects of pollution on the spread of coronavirus. Specifically, the effects of pollution on confirmed cases become larger for blacks, low educated, and counties with lower average wages in 2019.

Keywords: Covid-19; Racial Disparities; Education; Health; Pandemic; Pollution; Environment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H51 J15 K32 P36 Q53 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-02-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-env, nep-hea and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3) Track citations by RSS feed

Published in Journal of Economics and Behavioral Studies 6(J).12(2021): pp. 33-42

Downloads: (external link)
https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/105151/1/MPRA_paper_105151.pdf original version (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pra:mprapa:105151

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany Ludwigstraße 33, D-80539 Munich, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Joachim Winter ().