Arbeitspapier

The Historical Impact of Coal on Cities

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.

Language
Englisch

Bibliographic citation
Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 16229

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

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

Handle
Last update
10.03.2025, 11:42 AM CET

Data provider

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Object type

  • Arbeitspapier

Associated

  • Clay, Karen
  • Lewis, Joshua
  • Severnini, Edson R.
  • Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Time of origin

  • 2023

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