Past event

Applied Microeconomics Seminar with Dr Susanna Berkouwer, Wharton School of Business Cooking, health, and daily exposure to transient air pollution peaks

Dr Susanna Berkouwer is an Assistant Professor of business economic and public policy at the Wharton School of Business. She received her BSc at UCL (2010) and her PhD at Berkeley (2020). They have published in the American Economic Review, the Journal of Development Economics, Energy Economics, and the Energy Journal. Susanna is a Faculty Research Fellow at the NBER and an affiliate of BREAD and J-PAL. They are also currently an Associate Editor at the Journal of Development Economics.

Abstract: Extensive research has shown that high average levels of air pollution can harm chronic health and lower life expectancy. But daily economic activity often generates pollution exposure in bursts—consider, for example, daily commuting or cooking patterns. What are the impacts of such repeated transient spikes in air pollution, often experienced every day for years on end? This question is subject to ongoing policy and regulatory debate, both in the U.S. and globally (EPA, 2023; WHO Bulletin, 2021). We generate rigorous causal evidence on this topic by leveraging experimental variation among 1,000 low-income biomass cookstove users in Nairobi who cook on average 2 hours per day. Improved stoves reduce PM2.5 peaks during cooking by 52μg/m3 (42%). We estimate that this causes a 0.24 standard deviation reduction in self-reported short-term respiratory symptoms. However, even after 3 years of daily reductions in pollution peaks, we find no meaningful improvements on clinical health (such as blood pressure and blood oxygen) or self-reported medical diagnoses. This may be because high ambient pollution of 38μg/m3 means average exposure only falls by 2%. Improved cookstoves can reduce cooking-related air pollution peaks, but clinical health benefits may require larger reductions in average concentrations.

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