Year of Award

2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Type

Master of Arts (MA)

Degree Name

Economics

Department or School/College

Department of Economics

Committee Chair

Professor Jeffery Bookwalter

Commitee Members

Professor Douglas Dalenberg, Professor Erin L. Landguth

Keywords

Cost-effectiveness, Satellite, Driscoll-Kraay, Random Effects, Ordinary Least Squares, Ecological Fallacy

Subject Categories

Environmental Studies | Health Economics | Other Economics

Abstract

This study investigates the relationship between ambient air quality and asthma-related health outcomes in California, focusing on emergency department visits and hospitalizations from 2005 to 2022. Despite California’s strict air quality standards, individuals still face significant pollution challenges contributing to poor respiratory health, particularly among vulnerable populations. Therefore, this study looks at how fine particulate matter (PM2.5) affects asthma outcomes using panel data from 37 counties. A fixed effects regression model is employed to control for unobserved heterogeneities that are constant over time but vary across individual counties, ensuring robust estimates of the impact of pollution on health outcomes. This study tests the validity of aggregated data, offering insights into the impacts of pollution and cost-effectiveness associated with conducting this kind of research. The study finds that exposure to PM2.5 is significantly and positively associated with both asthma emergency department and hospitalization cases at the county level, with stronger effects observed for hospitalizations. These relationships are robust across multiple model specifications. Additionally, results remain consistent when using satellite-derived PM2.5 data, reinforcing the reliability of the findings across different exposure measurement approaches. While average PM2.5 levels are associated with increased asthma health outcomes, the standard deviation of PM2.5 exhibits a significant negative association with asthma outcomes, potentially reflecting behavioral adaptation during high-pollution levels. The results indicate that using lower-cost aggregated data does not mask the relationship.

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