The Impact of COVID-19 Containment Measures on Air Quality: Evidence From China

DOI

10.2991/assehr.k.210121.121How to use a DOI?

Keywords

COVID-19, Air quality, Containment measures, Level I emergency response

Abstract

The Chinese government has implemented a set of containment measures to control the spread of COVID-19 pandemic. The epidemic restrictions caused large reductions in human mobility and economic activities, which influenced the air quality conditions as well. This study investigates the short-term impact of pandemic restrictions on air quality based on the daily city-level air quality data of 31 provincial capitals and municipalities in mainland China. In the baseline estimation, a linear regression model with fixed effects is employed to capture the pollution improvement effects. The heterogeneity analysis is examined as an extension of the central argument. The results indicate that epidemic restrictions significantly improved the air quality in sample cities during the government response period. Besides, the magnitudes of pollution improvement are greater in cities with larger population size, higher regional GDP, and more industrial activities. The findings highlight the close relationship between human activities and air pollution conditions.

Copyright

© 2021, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Qing Yu
PY  - 2021
DA  - 2021/01/23
TI  - The Impact of COVID-19 Containment Measures on Air Quality: Evidence From China
BT  - Proceedings of the 6th Annual International Conference on Social Science and Contemporary Humanity Development (SSCHD 2020)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 602
EP  - 607
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.210121.121
DO  - 10.2991/assehr.k.210121.121
ID  - Yu2021
ER  -