AEA Papers and Proceedings
ISSN 2574-0768 (Print) | ISSN 2574-0776 (Online)
The Changing Nature of Pollution, Income, and Environmental Inequality in the United States
AEA Papers and Proceedings
vol. 114,
May 2024
(pp. 41–46)
Abstract
This paper uses tax records linked to administrative Census data and high-resolution measures of air pollution exposure (PM2.5) to study the evolution of the Black-White pollution exposure gap since 1984. We decompose changes in the racial exposure gap into (i) rank-preserving compression of the pollution distribution and (ii) changes stemming from a reordering of Black and White households within the pollution distribution. We find a narrowing of the racial exposure gap that is overwhelmingly driven by rank-preserving changes rather than positional changes. Recently, however, the relative positions of Black and White households in the upper tail of the pollution distribution have converged.Citation
Colmer, Jonathan, Suvy Qin, John Voorheis, and Reed Walker. 2024. "The Changing Nature of Pollution, Income, and Environmental Inequality in the United States." AEA Papers and Proceedings, 114: 41–46. DOI: 10.1257/pandp.20241010Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- D63 Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
- J15 Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
- Q51 Valuation of Environmental Effects
- Q53 Air Pollution; Water Pollution; Noise; Hazardous Waste; Solid Waste; Recycling