Behrer, A.P., Heft-Neal, S. Higher air pollution in wealthy districts of most low- and middle-income countries. Nat Sustain 7, 203–212 (2024)

Objective:

• Country-level estimates for the within-country correlation between wealth and pollution

Case:

• Country, Global

Methodology:

• OLS with fixed effects

Data Source: Open

• Relative wealth in 103 countries: 2.4 km *2.4 km
• Global pollution:
  • van Donkelaar research group
  • EDGAR: sectoral pollution
• Global elevation: National Aeronautics and Space Administration Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer project
• Urbanization: URCA, Nature (2018)
• Economic concentration: GHSL, built volume (100m)
• Country income: World Bank

Findings:

• Low and middle-income countries tend to have lower pollution
• Positive correlation between health and ambient pollution within-country

• The highest pollution levels with the highest wealth levels are the most urban
• In cities where the wealthy tend to live at higher elevations, they also tend to live in areas of lower pollution and vice versa

Coding Reference:

• Code (2024)