Do Mexicans care about air pollution?

• Published in: Latin American economic review Vol. 23; no. 1; pp. 1 - 24
• Main Author: Rodríguez-Sánchez, José Iván
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Heidelberg Springer 01.12.2014; Springer Berlin Heidelberg; Economica
• Subjects: Air pollution; Air quality; Airborne particulates; Bias; Cities; Consumption; Corruption; Costs; Development Economics; Discrete choice models; Economic models; Economic Policy; Economic statistics; Economic theory; Economics; Economics and Finance; Educational Policy and Politics; Emissions; Environmental Economics; Government; Illiteracy; Inventory; Labor Economics; Migration costs; Nitrogen; Original Research; Outdoor air quality; Ozone; Particulate matter; Pollutants; Poverty; Regional/Spatial Science; Studies; Unemployment; Valuation of air quality in Mexico; VOCs; Volatile organic compounds; Willingness to pay; Mexico; Q2; Q5; Discrete choice models; Particulate matter; Migration costs; Valuation of air quality in Mexico; D1; R1
• ISSN: 2196-436X; 2198-3526; 2196-436X
• DOI: 10.1007/s40503-014-0009-z

Mexico has many major problems such as corruption, poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, pollution, etc. Regarding pollution, politicians have established some programs trying to improve air quality in Mexico. But they do not know if Mexicans care about air pollution or they prefer that government faces other problems. This paper answers this question and in fact, we conclude that Mexicans do care about air pollution (measured by Particulate Matter) and they agree to pay to reduce it. This paper follows a residential sorting model to calculate marginal willingness to pay for a reduction in air pollution. Our estimates imply that the household head in Mexico would pay $443.66 to $2,682.92 (in constant 2000 Mexican pesos) or 46.90-283.61 (2000 dollars) for a one-unit reduction in Particulate Matter emissions per year. Therefore, there are benefits to reduce this problem in Mexico and the government and private firms must face this problem since the costs are lower than those benefits.