Abstract
This study concerns the relationship between air quality, economic wealth, and COVID-19 diffusion and mortality around the world. Using different data sources, we show that the level of air quality, in terms of particulate (PM 2.5) concentrations, does not significantly contribute to explain the diffusion of COVID-19 and the related mortality rates. On the contrary, GDP per capita significantly correlates with the diffusion of COVID-19 and related mortality, and the result holds in each day of March and April 2020 in which COVID-19 infections and deaths are counted. However, when we cluster countries by level of wealth, trade openness, sectoral structure, CO2 emissions, and climate conditions, we find that higher concentrations of PM 2.5 correspond to more infections and deaths, but only in high-income countries.
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Notes
- 1.
Data obtained from the World Health Organization website: https://www.who.int.
- 2.
For more information, see: https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/covid-19/data-collection.
- 3.
We should stress that the correlation between PM 2.5 and COVID-19 infections or deaths is at country level, or between countries. It may be that, within countries, there is a higher level of contagion or mortality in regions where air quality is lower.
- 4.
We have omitted the share of services as a proportion of GDP (SERV/GDP) as an explanatory variable because it is collinear with AGRVA/GDP and MANVA/GDP.
- 5.
In Italy, for instance, the classification protocol states that only people who die after officially testing positive in hospitals can be classified as COVID-19 victims. Some reports (e.g., Gabanelli & Ravizza, 2020) show that in several EU countries (e.g., the Netherlands, Belgium, among others), the mortality rate due to coronavirus remains particularly low, but in the first 4 months of 2020, these countries have had more than double the mortality rates of the same period in 2019. It is not clear why different countries count COVID-19-related deaths differently.
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Antonietti, R., Falbo, P., Fontini, F. (2021). Assessing the Relationship Between Air Quality, Wealth, and the First Wave of COVID-19 Diffusion and Mortality. In: Belaïd, F., Cretì, A. (eds) Energy Transition, Climate Change, and COVID-19. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-79713-3_1
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