Flutterby™! : Recessions, Pollution, and Life Expectancy

The upside of recessions: New research confirms it: The worse the economy gets, the longer we live. But why?

The answer was pollution. Counties that experienced the biggest job losses in the Great Recession, the economists found, also saw the largest declines in air pollution, as measured by levels of the fine particulate matter PM2.5. It makes sense: During recessions, fewer people drive to work. Factories and offices slow down, and people cut back on their own energy use to save money. All that reduced activity leads to cleaner air. That would explain why workers without a college degree enjoyed the biggest drops in mortality: People with low-wage jobs tend to live in neighborhoods with more environmental toxins. It would also explain why the recession reduced mortality from heart disease, suicide, and car crashes — causes of death all linked to the physical and mental effects of PM2.5. Overall, the economists found, cleaner air was responsible for more than a third of the decline in mortality during the Great Recession.

National Bureau of Economic Research: Lives vs. Livelihoods: The Impact of the Great Recession on Mortality and Welfare Amy Finkelstein, Matthew J. Notowidigdo, Frank Schilbach & Jonathan Zhang

Via.