Publications:
8. Ruohao Zhang and Neha Khanna (2023), Public Pressure and Heterogeneous Effects of Voluntary Pollution Abatement, Accepted, Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists
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Unpublished mathematical appendix:
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7. Vladimir Atanasov, Paula Natalia Barreto Parra, Jeffrey Whittle, John Meurer, Benjamin Weston, Qian (Eric) Luo, Andy Ye Yuan, Lorenzo Franchi, Ruohao Zhang and Bernard Black (2023), Selection Effects and COVID-19 Mortality Risk after Pfizer vs. Moderna Vaccination: Evidence from Linked Mortality and Vaccination Records, Vaccines 11(5): 971
6. Ruohao Zhang, Huan Li, Neha Khanna, Alan J. Krupnick, Elaine L. Hill, and Daniel M. Sullivan (2023), Air Quality Impacts of Shale Gas Development in Pennsylvania, Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists 10(2): 447-486
5. Vladimir Atanasov, Paula Natalia Barreto Parra, Jeffrey Whittle, John Meurer, Benjamin Weston, Qian (Eric) Luo, Lorenzo Franchi, Andy Ye Yuan, Ruohao Zhang and Bernard Black (2023), Understanding COVID-19 Vaccine Effectiveness Against Death Using a Novel Measure: COVID Excess Mortality Percentage, Vaccines 11(2): 379
4. Paula Natalia Barreto Parra, Vladimir Atanasov, John Meurer, Jeffrey Whittle, Qian (Eric) Luo, Ruohao Zhang and Bernard Black (2022), The Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Elderly: Population Fatality Rates, Years of Life Lost, and Life Expectancy, Elder Law Journal 30(1): 33-80
3. Ruohao Zhang (2022), Economic Impact Payment, Human Mobility and COVID-19 Mitigation in the United States, Empirical Economics 62(1): 3041-3060
2. Ruohao Zhang, Huan Li and Neha Khanna (2021), The Environmental Justice of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Evidence from New York State, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 110(1): 102522
1. Ruohao Zhang, Subal C. Kumbhakar and Hung-pin Lai (2021), Estimation of Panel Model with Heteroscedasticity in both Idiosyncratic and Individual Specific Errors, Econometric Reviews 40(4): 415-432
Selected Working Papers:
1. “Strategic Local Regulators and the Efficacy of Uniform Pollution Standards”, with Neha Khanna, working paper.
| assa_2022_presentation.pdf |
| local_regulation_strategy_2021-12-27.pdf |
We assess the effect of changes in a national pollution standard on local pollution. Local jurisdictions allocate resources in regulating pollution at the local level, and in areas with high pollution, local regulators have an incentive to strategically violate the national pollution standard and decrease regulation resources in response to a more stringent national pollution standard. Our empirical analysis of the 2006 revision of the 24-hour PM2.5 national standard provides evidence that supports this theory, showing that both monitor readings and individual plant emissions did not decrease or even increased in areas that intentionally violate the national standard.
2. “Firm Behavior under Unanticipated Change in Regulation: Power Plant Emissions during the 2018-2019 Federal Government Shutdown”, with Huan Li and Neha Khanna, revise & resubmit, Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists.
| EPA_furlough.pdf |
We show that firms strategically reduce their compliance effort when regulatory stringency unexpectedly declines in short run. We analyze daily air emissions from coal-fired power plants in the United States, using the Environmental Protection Agency's furlough during the 2018 { 19 federal government shutdown as a natural experiment. Using an engineering-based approach we con rm that coal-fired power plants increased daily particulate matter emissions during the furlough of Federal employees by temporarily reducing end-of-pipe pollution control. At the same time, consistent with our expectations, there is no detectable increase in daily emissions of SO2 and NOX during the furlough, because they are continuously monitored and the furlough did not represent a change in regulation stringency for these pollutants.
3. “Behind Environmental Injustice: Disparate Siting Industries and Post-siting
Demographic Transformation”, working paper.
| siting_and_migration.pdf |
| assa_2023_slides.pdf |
Environmental injustice is caused by two mechanisms: disparate siting and post-siting migration. This paper shows disparate siting and post-siting transformation both significantly contribute to environmental injustice. Empirically, I analyze the relationship between the siting of fossil fuel power plants and the local racial composition at the census tract level in the U.S. between 2000 and 2019. The results suggest that fossil fuel power plants are more likely to be sited in the areas with higher minority ratios, and on average it causes an increase in the local minority ratio by 2.1%.
4. “Effects of Short-Term Air Pollution Exposure on U.S. COVID-19 Mortality”, with Jeffrey Whittle, Vladimir Atanasov, John Meurer, Paula Natalia Barreto Parra, and Bernard Black, under review.
Paper available at SSRN 4006616.
Prior studies have shown that long-term exposure to air pollution predicts higher COVID-19 mortality, but there is limited evidence on the effect of short-term fluctuations in air pollution levels. To determine whether short-term changes in county air-pollution levels predict COVID-19 mortality in the U.S. We use county-level data regarding COVID-19 deaths, air pollution, temperature, precipitation, and lagged SARS-CoV2 infection and vaccination rates, with county and date fixed effects, to assess whether, and for how long, variation in local air pollution predicts higher COVID-19 mortality rates. Our data consists of daily COVID-19 deaths, infections, and vaccination rates, the aerosol optical depth (AOD) measure of daily air pollution from NASA MODIS satellite data, and Oregon State University PRISM database on daily precipitation and temperature, both at high spatial resolution, over March 2020 through August 2021. After interpolation for days with missing air pollution data, 2,942 counties had data on AOD. Higher AOD levels predicts modestly higher COVID-19 mortality for the next 2-3 weeks, controlling for local lagged infections, lagged vaccination rates, temperature, and precipitation. A one standard deviation increase in AOD, over the previous 14 days, predicts 5.9% higher COVID-19 mortality. This study documents a significant association between time variation in county air pollution levels and COVID-19 mortality during the following 2-3 week. This suggests persons who are infected with or at risk for SARS-CoV-2 infection should limit exposure to air pollution, and greater attention to indoor ventilation and filtering, including in hospitals, to reduce pollution exposure.
5. “The COVID-19 Pandemic and Life Expectancy: Decomposition Using Individual-Level Mortality Data”, with Paula Natalia Barreto Parra, Vladimir Atanasov, John Meurer, Jeffrey Whittle, Qian (Eric) Luo, and Bernard Black, under review.
We develop cohort-based estimates of life expectancy without COVID, the fraction of persons who have died of COVID (population fatality rate, or PFR), and life expectancy loss, relying on individual-level data for three areas in the Midwestern U.S. (Cook County, Illinois; Milwaukee County, Wisconsin; and the State of Indiana). We use the individual-level data to assess how estimates of PFR and life-expectancy loss vary with age, gender, race/ethnicity, and socio-economic status. COVID PFR over March 2020-June 2021 for the three Midwest areas is 0.17% and decedents lose about 12 expected life-years. Life expectancy loss for that period is 0.17%*12 years = 0.021 years (8 days); but is higher for men (0.025 years) than for women (0.018 years), and substantially higher for Blacks and Hispanic (0.030 years) than for Whites (0.018 years). We also provide national estimates using aggregate data. Life expectancy losses due to COVID exceed the annual gains in life expectancy over 2008-2018 for persons above ages 62-69 (depending on gender and race/ethnicity). Socio-economic status (controlling for age, gender, and race/ethnicity) has only modest effects on life expectancy loss. Our life expectancy loss estimates are much lower than published estimates which use a “period life expectancy” approach.