Abstract

The adverse impact of haze on health and its association with a range of economic outcomes have received increasing attention in the literature. A natural laboratory experiment involving more than 600 subjects enables a first attempt at investigating the causal effect of haze, proxied by particulate matter of up to 2.5 microns in diameter (PM2.5) on decision making. This study was conducted in Beijing in October 2012 over five days with highly varying levels of PM2.5, which only became commonly known in China in 2013. We observed several effects associated with an increase in haze. In terms of individual decision making, we found increases in risk aversion and ambiguity aversion over gains. In terms of other-regarding behavior, subjects became less prosocial, giving less in a dictator game, contributing less in a public goods game, and reciprocating less in a sequential prisoners’ dilemma. Our results underpin several reported findings in the literature linking short-term variations in air quality to real-world economic variables, including stock market performance, worker productivity, movie attendance and revenue, criminal activities, and subjective wellbeing.

内容提要

本研究首次通过自然-实验室实验研究了雾霾对行为决策的影响。2012年10月600多名实验对象在北京参加了这场实验。实验为期5天，前三天和后两天PM2.5指数差异非常大，且雾霾这一事物在2013年才被人们广泛知晓。数据分析结果表明，雾霾越严重，人们的风险厌恶和模糊厌恶越强；人们的亲社会性变弱，在独裁者博弈、公共品博弈、连续的囚徒困境中给出更少。这些发现支持了一系列文献的发现，包括空气污染对股市表现、工人生产率、电影上座率、收入、犯罪活动以及主观幸福感的影响。

论文链接：https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chieco.2021.101608

本文在线发表于Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization2021年第182卷。该期刊为经济与管理学院A-类奖励期刊，作者按姓氏字母排序。