Economics of Environmental and Public Health Policies
| dc.contributor.advisor | Zou, Eric | |
| dc.contributor.author | Zhang, Shan | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2024-01-09T22:44:16Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2024-01-09T22:44:16Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2024-01-09 | |
| dc.description.abstract | This dissertation is comprised of three papers that investigate the effects of recycling policy, pollution, and public health policy. The first paper examines the impact of China's waste import ban on U.S. polltion emissions at the national and state level. The second paper studies the distributional effect of China's waste import policy on waste transfers across local communities in California. The third paper investigates people's willingness to pay for public health policies to protect the health of a community during the COVID-19 pandemic. Chapter 1 provides a comprehensive overview of each dissertation chapter. Chapter 2 analyzes the effect of China's Green Sword policy (waste import ban) on U.S. emissions at the national and state level. Using the synthetic control method, the study finds that many states experienced significant increases in methane emissions after the policy took effect, with the total U.S. methane emissions from the waste industry increasing by 10\%. The study also finds a positive correlation between the waste trade each state had with China before the ban and the increase in emissions after the policy, suggesting that the states that relied more on trading recyclable wastes with China were more affected by the policy. Chapter 3 examines the effects of the Green Sword policy on the relocation of solid waste pollution across local communities in California. Using detailed waste transfer data from California, the study finds that Black communities received more waste transfers before the policy, but after the policy, relatively more waste pollution relocated to lower-income White communities. The study identifies land costs as the primary explanation for this distributional effect. Chapter 4 (co-authored with Trudy Ann Cameron) utilizes a choice-experiment survey of U.S. residents to determine people's willingness to pay for public policies to reduce illnesses and premature deaths in their communities. The study estimates people's ex-ante willingness to pay to avoid the actual monthly totals of COVID-19 cases and deaths from March 2020 to April 2021 by county and month. The estimated aggregate willingness to pay across the U.S. adult population during this period is about 3 trillion dollars. | en_US |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/1794/29152 | |
| dc.language.iso | en_US | |
| dc.publisher | University of Oregon | |
| dc.rights | All Rights Reserved. | |
| dc.subject | Environmental Justice | en_US |
| dc.subject | GHG Emissions | en_US |
| dc.subject | Public Health Policy | en_US |
| dc.subject | Recycling Policy | en_US |
| dc.title | Economics of Environmental and Public Health Policies | |
| dc.type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation | |
| thesis.degree.discipline | Department of Economics | |
| thesis.degree.grantor | University of Oregon | |
| thesis.degree.level | doctoral | |
| thesis.degree.name | Ph.D. |
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