Seminar Vol. 146
Title: Local Pollution Drives Global Pollution: Emissions Feedback via Residential Electricity Usage
Speaker: Alberto Salvo, National University of Singapore
Time: April 26th, 2019 15:15–16:30
Venue: Conference Room 106B, Zhonghui Building (IESR, JNU College of Economics)
About the speaker:
Alberto Salvo is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Economics at the National University of Singapore. He received a Ph.D. in Economics from London School of Economics in 2005 and worked as an Assistant Professor at Northwestern University (the U.S.) before joining NUS in 2013. Alberto Salvo's main research interests are Energy & Environmental Economics, Industrial Organization, and Applied Microeconomics. His current research falls under the broad theme of “Individual Behavior, the Environment, and Socioeconomic Outcomes.” The economist studies how the behavior and incentives of economic agents, such as households, workers and firms, interact with scarce environmental resources, such as air and water. He collaborates across disciplines, including atmospheric sciences and environmental health. His recent work focuses on Asia’s under-studied and globally critical environment and society. Over the years, Alberto Salvo has published his work in such international journals as Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Nature Communications, Nature Geoscience, Journal of Industrial Economics, and Economica.
Abstract:
This study links two major societal phenomena and shows that this link matters. First, home energy demand is increasing sharply as incomes rise in the urbanizing developing world. Second, particle pollution afflicts much of the world’s rising middle classes. I access longitudinal data for Singapore, a newly affluent and leading Asian city, to show that air quality is a key driver of residential electricity demand. Electricity use grows by 10% when PM2.5 rises by 100 µg/m3. Counterfactually, blowing 1 year of Beijing’s ambient air over Singapore increases electricity use by 10% and annual expenditure by US$ 163 for a household with air conditioning (AC) at home. Singapore uniquely combines rich-country defensive capital stocks, such as AC, with routine developing-country PM2.5 levels. Local pollution control has the co-benefit of reducing electricity generation, via household demand, and mitigating carbon emissions. Defensive expenditure may also exacerbate health inequalities, as a public health debate suggests.
