Pesticide use and health outcomes: Evidence from agricultural water pollution in China |
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| Institution: | 1. School of Economics, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Shanghai 200433, China;2. Key Laboratory of Mathematical Economics (SUFE), Ministry of Education, Shanghai 200433, China;1. Department of Policy Analysis and Management, Department of Economics, Cornell University, USA;2. Institute of Real Estate Studies, National University of Singapore, Singapore;3. International School of Business and Finance, Sun Yat-sen University, China;1. Research Institute of Economics and Management, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, 55 Guanghua Cun Street, Chengdu 610074, PR China;2. Institute for Economic and Social Research, Jinan University, 601 Huangpu West Avenue, Guangzhou 510632, PR China;1. State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, School of Environment, Nanjing University, China;2. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, National Center for Environmental Economics, United States;3. Kyung Hee University, South Korea;4. Population Research Instituition, Business School, Nanjing University, China |
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| Abstract: | By linking provincial pesticide usage reports from several Chinese statistical yearbooks (1998-2011) with the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (1998-2011), this study provides new evidence that pesticides adversely affect health outcomes via drinking water exposure. We follow a difference-in-difference-in-differences framework to compare health outcomes between people who drink surface water and ground water in regions with different intensities of rice pesticide use before and after 2004, when China shifted from taxing agriculture to subsidizing agricultural programs. The results indicate that a 10% increase in rice pesticide use unfavorably alters a key medical disability index (Activities of Daily Living or ADL) by 1% for rural residents 65 and older. This is equivalent to 2.13 and 0.64 million dollars in medical and family care costs, respectively. Further, we provide suggestive evidence of an intergenerational transfer of caring burden by showing pesticide use reduces out-migration of the offspring in affected households. The results are robust to a variety of robustness checks and falsification tests. |
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| Keywords: | Pesticide Drinking water Public health Triple difference estimator Medical costs Family care burden China |
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