Air quality impacts of EV promotion: Evidence from local charging pile adoption in China

IF 2.9 3区经济学 Q1 ECONOMICS

Journal of Asian Economics Pub Date : 2025-03-15 DOI:10.1016/j.asieco.2025.101922

Ye Wang , Feng Yu , Faqin Lin , Kuo Feng

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Abstract

This paper verifies the causal relationship between electric vehicles (EVs) promotion and improvements in air quality in China using the Difference-in-Differences (DID) estimation method. By combining the installation dates of new charging piles within prefecture-level cities with station-level air pollution data, we estimate that the PM2.5 decreased by 3.326

μ g / m^{3}

after the installation of new charging piles. Mechanism tests indicate that EV promotion led to a reduction in emissions of pollutants directly associated with fossil fuel vehicles. Although EV promotion increased the sales volume of EVs, it did not exacerbate pollution by causing traffic congestion. Instead, it improved air quality by increasing the EVs proportion within cities. Heterogeneity test results show that improvements in air quality are particularly sensitive to EV promotion in developed regions in China. These findings demonstrate the effectiveness of promoting EVs to reduce air pollution in developing countries.

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电动汽车推广对空气质量的影响：来自中国地方充电桩采用的证据

本文采用差分差分估计方法验证了中国电动汽车推广与空气质量改善之间的因果关系。结合地级市新增充电桩安装日期和站点级空气污染数据，我们估计新增充电桩安装后PM2.5降低了3.326 μg/m3。机制测试表明，推广电动汽车导致与化石燃料汽车直接相关的污染物排放减少。虽然电动汽车的推广增加了电动汽车的销量，但并没有因为造成交通拥堵而加剧污染。相反，它通过增加城市内电动汽车的比例来改善空气质量。异质性检验结果显示，中国发达地区的空气质量改善对电动汽车推广尤为敏感。这些发现证明了在发展中国家推广电动汽车减少空气污染的有效性。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Journal of Asian Economics ECONOMICS-

CiteScore

4.70

自引率

9.40%

发文量

期刊介绍： The Journal of Asian Economics provides a forum for publication of increasingly growing research in Asian economic studies and a unique forum for continental Asian economic studies with focus on (i) special studies in adaptive innovation paradigms in Asian economic regimes, (ii) studies relative to unique dimensions of Asian economic development paradigm, as they are investigated by researchers, (iii) comparative studies of development paradigms in other developing continents, Latin America and Africa, (iv) the emerging new pattern of comparative advantages between Asian countries and the United States and North America.