Causes of haze and its health effects in Singapore: a replication study
Stellenbosch Working Paper Series No. WP10/2020Publication date: June 2020
Author(s):
Intermittently Singapore suffers from severe air pollution in periods of intense forest and peatland fires on neighboring South-Asian islands. A recent American Economic Review article modeled the causal relationships between fire intensity in Indonesia and air pollution (PSI) in Singapore, and between PSI and health clinic visits in Singapore. We find serious flaws in the quantitative assessment of these relationships. Attempts are made to repair these using the same classic methodology and data, but also by alternative methods requiring less speculative assumptions. Although actually more detailed data are required, also some results are produced which seem more credible.
JEL Classification:C12, C13, C26, I1, Q53
Keywords:endogeneity robust inference, environmental economics, health economics, instrument invalidity, sensitivity analysis
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19 Apr 2024There was good news for global growth this week – with China's Q1 GDP beating expectations (see international section) and the IMF lifting its global growth forecast for 2024 once more. SA economic data releases, however, were mixed, with a welcome downtick in CPI inflation but relatively poor internal trade data. Most of the world’s economic policymakers...
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BER Weekly
19 Apr 2024There was good news for global growth this week – with China's Q1 GDP beating expectations (see international section) and the IMF lifting its global growth forecast for 2024 once more. SA economic data releases, however, were mixed, with a welcome downtick in CPI inflation but relatively poor internal trade data. Most of the world’s economic policymakers...
Read the full issue