Short-term Impacts of COVID-19 on PM2.5 in Urban China

Abstract

Abstract: This paper quantifies environmental impact of extreme event in urban China by integrating empirical mode decomposition (EMD) with time-varying difference-in-differences (DID) approach. Our approach allows us to separate short-term random fluctuation from long-term trend and event shock, and thus improves the precision of the subsequent impact estimation. Using data on the daily PM_2.5 concentrations and climate variations in 295 cities at the prefectural level from November 2018 to May 2020, the results show that the outbreak of COVID-19 caused structural changes of PM_2.5 in 196 cities, and the response efficiencies across cities varied greatly. During the COVID-19 period, a significant decline of PM_2.5 concentrations by 10.66 μg/m³ in 155 out of 295 cities, largely attributable to the city level lockdown. Compared with unlocked cities, PM_2.5 dropped by 7.45 μg/m³ on average in cities with lockdown policy, with significant regional variations. Lockdown plays a short-term effect on the improvement of PM_2.5 in Chinese cities. The temporary air quality improvement is achieved at tremendous economic cost. Therefore, governments shall address environmental pollution with more sustainable measures rather than city lockdown.

Key words: COVID-19, PM_2.5, short-term impact, lockdown, empirical mode decomposition, time-varying difference-in-differences

Cao Ting, Zhu Bangzhu, Wang Ping. Short-term Impacts of COVID-19 on PM_2.5 in Urban China[J]. Management Review, 2024, 36(10): 250-259.

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Short-term Impacts of COVID-19 on PM_2.5 in Urban China

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