The Historical Impact of Coal on Cities

Arbeitspapier

Historically coal has offered both benefits and costs to urban areas. Benefits include coal's role in fueling industry and thus employment. The primary costs are air pollution and its impact on human health. This paper starts by using a Rosen-Roback style model to examine how differences in local coal availability affect equilibrium city employment. Drawing on the model, the paper surveys papers that examine the net effects of coal on the growth in city population and air pollution on health. The paper then turns to papers that explicitly consider the trade-offs between production benefits and pollution disamenities across space and over time. The paper ends with a discussion of opportunities for future work on coal and cities in historical settings.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 16229

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Economic History: Agriculture, Natural Resources, Environment, and Extractive Industries: U.S.; Canada: 1913- ; Economic History: Transport, Trade, Energy, Technology, and Other Services: U.S.; Canada: 1913- ; Economic Development: Agriculture; Natural Resources; Energy; Environment; Other Primary Products ; Air Pollution; Water Pollution; Noise; Hazardous Waste; Solid Waste; Recycling ; Environment and Development; Environment and Trade; Sustainability; Environmental Accounts and Accounting; Environmental Equity; Population Growth
• Subject: coal availability ; local development ; air pollution ; trade-offs of coal consumption

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Clay, Karen ; Lewis, Joshua ; Severnini, Edson R.
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
• (where): Bonn
• (when): 2023

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/278927
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:42 AM CET