The impact of smoking, overweight, and fine particulate matter air pollution on life expectancy: Estimations with county-level matched data for Germany

Aloys Leo Prinz; David Johannes Richter

doi:10.29333/ejeph/12681

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Aloys Leo Prinz ¹ ^* , David Johannes Richter ¹

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¹ Department of Business and Economics, Institute of Public Economics, University of Muenster, Muenster, GERMANY^* Corresponding Author

Abstract

Smoking and overweight are well-known factors that shorten life expectancy. While these factors are seemingly controllable by the individual, risks from fine particulate matter pollution are less so. In this paper, these risks are studied with novel micro data at the county level for Germany and for the years 1999 to 2017. A matching approach is used to control for relevant differences between the counties. Unexpectedly, fine particulate matter pollution is not found to have a direct effect on life expectancy, when controlling for relevant covariates with the matching estimation model. In contrast, it had just such a negative effect in the robustness check and extensions with an OLS model. These additional OLS estimations provide evidence of a moderating effect of particulate matter pollution on the effects of smoking and overweight with respect to life expectancy.

Keywords

smoking
overweight
air pollution
life expectancy
matched data
Germany

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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Research Article

EUR J ENV PUBLIC HLT, Volume 7, Issue 2, 2023, Article No: em0130

https://doi.org/10.29333/ejeph/12681

Publication date: 01 Apr 2023

Online publication date: 05 Dec 2022

Article Views: 1032

Article Downloads: 1070

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How to cite this article

Vancouver

Prinz AL, Richter DJ. The impact of smoking, overweight, and fine particulate matter air pollution on life expectancy: Estimations with county-level matched data for Germany. EUR J ENV PUBLIC HLT. 2023;7(2):em0130. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejeph/12681

APA

Prinz, A. L., & Richter, D. J. (2023). The impact of smoking, overweight, and fine particulate matter air pollution on life expectancy: Estimations with county-level matched data for Germany. European Journal of Environment and Public Health, 7(2), em0130. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejeph/12681

AMA

Prinz AL, Richter DJ. The impact of smoking, overweight, and fine particulate matter air pollution on life expectancy: Estimations with county-level matched data for Germany. EUR J ENV PUBLIC HLT. 2023;7(2), em0130. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejeph/12681

Chicago

Prinz, Aloys Leo, and David Johannes Richter. "The impact of smoking, overweight, and fine particulate matter air pollution on life expectancy: Estimations with county-level matched data for Germany". European Journal of Environment and Public Health 2023 7 no. 2 (2023): em0130. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejeph/12681

Harvard

Prinz, A. L., and Richter, D. J. (2023). The impact of smoking, overweight, and fine particulate matter air pollution on life expectancy: Estimations with county-level matched data for Germany. European Journal of Environment and Public Health, 7(2), em0130. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejeph/12681

MLA

Prinz, Aloys Leo et al. "The impact of smoking, overweight, and fine particulate matter air pollution on life expectancy: Estimations with county-level matched data for Germany". European Journal of Environment and Public Health, vol. 7, no. 2, 2023, em0130. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejeph/12681