We utilize a quasi-experiment derived from China's Huai River policy to investigate the effect of air pollution on adult chronic diseases. The policy led to higher pollution exposure in cities north of the river boundary because they received centralized coal-based heating supply from the government during winter, whereas cities in the south did not. By applying a geographic regression discontinuity design based on distance from the Huai River, we determine that a 10 μg/m³ increase in fine particulate matter (PM_2.5) raises chronic diseases rates by 3.2% in adults, particularly cardiorespiratory system diseases. Furthermore, the same effects are observed on multiple chronic disease rates, but the rates are reduced to 1.3%. The effect of pollution exposure varies depending on age, gender, and urban/rural status. Our findings imply that reducing 10 μg/m³ of the average nationwide level of PM_2.5 concentration will save 27.46 billion CNY (4.16 billion USD) in chronic disease costs.

In this paper, we examine whether outdoor air pollution has a causal effect on body weight. To address the potential endogeneity, we exploit exogenous variation in PM2.5 concentrations generated by China’s coal-fired winter heating policy, using regression discontinuity designs to estimate the impact of winter heating on air pollution and body weight in adults. We find that high outdoor air pollution exposure increases body mass index and the corresponding risk of obesity with a 1 μg/m3 increase in annual average PM2.5 concentrations in the past ten years increasing body mass index by 0.014 units and increasing the rate of adult obesity, by 0.3 percentage points. Our results are robust to using different specifications. Furthermore, the rising risk of obesity caused by air pollution is mainly through channels such as increased intake of energy-dense foods and less physical exercise. The findings imply that low pollution exposure can be an effective way to improve dietary and physical activity patterns and reduce the risk of becoming overweight.

This paper examines the effect of the image of destinations on the wage income of resident households, and the corresponding income inequality, from a novel perspective. This work uses China’s excellent tourism city image program, which is an urban planning policy implemented by the central government across cities to enhance the image of the city destination in the minds of tourists, and then promote tourist motivation and local tourism development to assess the effect on household wage income and its distribution. Results show that the program significantly increases household wage income by increasing employment opportunities, promoting business and population agglomeration, and improving urban infrastructure. Additionally, the image of the city destination promotion causes an increase in income inequality among households.