PhD Candidate, Department of Economics, LSE
Contact information
Email: y.lin18@lse.ac.uk
Phone number: +44 (0)75 2121 8567
Room number: 32L.2.35
Address: Department of Economics || London School of Economics and Political Science || Houghton Street || London WC2A 2AE
Research interests
Primary Fields: Environmental and Energy Economics || Urban Economics
Secondary Fields: International Trade || Development Economics
Job Market Paper
The Hidden Cost of Industrial Pollution: Environmental Amenities and the Distribution of Skills
Abstract
This paper presents theory and evidence on the role of environmental amenities in shaping the competitiveness of post-industrial cities. I assemble a rich database at a fine spatial scale to examine the impact of historical pollution on the distribution of skilled
workers and residents within cities. I find that census tracts downwind to highly polluted historical industrial sites in the 1970s are associated with lower housing prices and a smaller share of skilled employment three decades later, a pattern which has been reinforced from 1980 to 2000. These findings suggest the presence of skill sorting on pollution and strong subsequent agglomeration effects. To quantify the contribution of different mechanisms, I build and estimate a multi-sector spatial equilibrium framework that introduces heterogeneity in local productivity and workers' valuation for local amenities across sectors, and allows the initial sorting to be magnified by production
and residential externalities. Further structural estimation suggests that historical pollution is associated with lower current productivity and amenity; the magnitudes are higher for productivity, more skilled sectors and central tracts. I then use the framework to evaluate the impact of counterfactual pollution cuts in different parts of cities on nationwide welfare and cross-city skill distribution.
Publications and Additional Papers
“Travel Costs and Urban Employment Patterns: Evidence from China's High Speed Railway” (2nd Round Revise and Resubmit at Journal of Urban Economics)
“International Technology Transfer and Domestic Innovation: Evidence from the High-Speed Rail Sector in China” (CEP Discussion Paper No 1393)
“Where does the wind blow? Green preferences and spatial misallocation in renewable energy sector” (CEP Discussion Paper No 1424)