Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0009-0006-5038-0277

Date of Award

8-1-2024

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Economics

First Advisor

Garth Heutel

Abstract

This dissertation consists of three essays on Environmental and Labor Economics.

The first chapter estimates the impact of the winter clean heating pilot (WCHP) project on air quality in northern China using staggered models. The primary findings indicate an overall reduction in air pollution levels in northern China attributed to the WCHP. Moreover, the WCHP exhibits heightened effectiveness during the heating period, resulting in a reduction of PM2.5 by 13.39 µg/m3 (14.2%), and PM10 by 21.06 µg/m3 (13.6%). Additionally, the study reveals unintended consequences of the WCHP in mitigating historical disparities in air pollution levels between northern and southern China due to the Huai River policy (HRP). Following the implementation of the WCHP, there is a notable decrease in air pollution levels in northern regions compared to southern areas. Specifically, PM2.5 and PM10 in northern China exhibit a substantial and greater decrease than in southern China, with reductions of 13.07 µg/m3 (23%) and 21.31 µg/m3 (21%), respectively.

Hedonic theory predicts that housing prices should increase as air quality improves from environmental regulations. However, environmental policies also bring substantial costs to influenced industries and affect labor markets, which affect housing markets. The second chapter investigates the effects of environmental regulations on both house values and rents under the setting of a cap-and-trade program - the NOx Budget Trading Program (NBP), considering both the amenity channel and the labor-market channel. I find that the pass-through of the value of environmental improvements is lower among renters than that of house owners. In addition, house values and rents decrease more in higher manufacturing energy intensity areas due to the negative impact of the NBP on the local labor market. Furthermore, the distributional effects of the NBP are distinctly different between owner-occupants and renters.

The third chapter examines the impact of family size on the labor market behavior and occupational characteristics of employed parents in the United States, utilizing an instrumental variable approach. By leveraging exogenous variation in family size resulting from the sex composition of the first two children, I analyze changes in parents’ job flexibility, employer-provided health insurance, and occupational prestige scores. The findings reveal that parents with larger families tend to have occupations characterized by greater flexibility, as indicated by lower scores in the five job features related to flexibility. Additionally, parents tend to hold jobs that offer employer- or union-provided health insurance. Furthermore, the analysis uncovers a noteworthy trend: each additional child corresponds to a 7.8% to 10.2% decrease in the prestige scores of both mothers and fathers. This suggests a discernible shift towards occupations with lower prestige scores as family size increases.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.57709/37385761

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