Dirty density: Air quality and the density of American cities - Grantham Research Institute on climate change and the environment<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lse.ac.uk\/granthaminstitute\/publication\/dirty-density-air-quality-and-the-density-of-american-cities\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dirty density: Air quality and the density of American cities - Grantham Research Institute on climate change and the environment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The authors of this study the effect of urban density on the exposure of city dwellers to air pollution using data from the United States urban system.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.lse.ac.uk\/granthaminstitute\/publication\/dirty-density-air-quality-and-the-density-of-american-cities\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Grantham Research Institute on climate change and the environment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-06-27T14:23:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.lse.ac.uk\\\/granthaminstitute\\\/publication\\\/dirty-density-air-quality-and-the-density-of-american-cities\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.lse.ac.uk\\\/granthaminstitute\\\/publication\\\/dirty-density-air-quality-and-the-density-of-american-cities\\\/\",\"name\":\"Dirty density: Air quality and the density of American cities - 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{"id":79010,"date":"2023-01-09T15:19:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-09T15:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lse.ac.uk\/granthaminstitute\/?post_type=publication&p=79010"},"modified":"2025-06-27T15:23:06","modified_gmt":"2025-06-27T14:23:06","slug":"dirty-density-air-quality-and-the-density-of-american-cities","status":"publish","type":"publication","link":"https:\/\/www.lse.ac.uk\/granthaminstitute\/publication\/dirty-density-air-quality-and-the-density-of-american-cities\/","title":{"rendered":"Dirty density: Air quality and the density of American cities"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We study the effect of urban density on the exposure of city dwellers to air pollution using data from the United States urban system. Exploiting geological features to instrument for density, we find an economically and statistically significant pollution-density elasticity of 0.14. We assess the health implications of these estimates and find that increased density in an average city leads to sizeable mortality costs. Our findings highlight the possible trade-off between reducing global greenhouse gas emissions, which is associated with denser cities according to prior empirical research, and preserving local air quality and human health within cities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Felipe Carozzi, Sefi Roth, Dirty density: Air quality and the density of American cities, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Volume 118, 2023, 102767, ISSN 0095-0696,
https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.jeem.2022.102767.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\n

The authors of this study the effect of urban density on the exposure of city dwellers to air pollution using data from the United States urban system.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tags":[403,2004,286,488],"publication-type":[436],"topic_area":[4702],"class_list":["post-79010","publication","type-publication","status-publish","hentry","tag-air-pollution","tag-air-quality","tag-united-states","tag-urban-contexts","publication-type-research-articles","topic_area-air-pollution"],"acf":{"show_translations_widget":{"ref_value":"field_6203d588c41e8","value":"0","type":false,"post_type":""},"downloads":{"ref_value":"field_52f16cc1a80f2","value":false,"type":"repeater","post_type":""},"rss_newsletter":{"ref_value":"field_54f5c2c1544d8","value":"","type":false,"post_type":""},"profile_link":{"ref_value":"field_52f164b5189e9","value":["sefi-roth"],"type":"relationship","post_type":"profile"},"article_link":{"ref_value":"field_52eee3c7f0586","value":"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S0095069622001206","type":false,"post_type":""},"article_link_title":{"ref_value":"field_5322399d89d42","value":"External link to paper","type":false,"post_type":""},"spotlight":{"ref_value":"field_52f80896506d3","value":"","type":false,"post_type":""}},"yoast_head":"\nDirty density: Air quality and the density of American cities - 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