TY  - JOUR
A1  - Borck, Rainald
A1  - Schrauth, Philipp
T1  - Population density and urban air quality
JF  - Regional science and urban economics
N2  - We use panel data from Germany to analyze the effect of population density on urban air pollution (nitrogen oxides, particulate matter, ozone, and an aggregate index for bad air quality [AQI]). To address unobserved heterogeneity and omitted variables, we present long difference/fixed effects estimates and instrumental variables estimates, using historical population and soil quality as instruments. Using our preferred estimates, we find that the concentration increases with density for NO2 with an elasticity of 0.25 and particulate matter with elasticity of 0.08. The O-3 concentration decreases with density with an elasticity of -0.14. The AQI increases with density, with an elasticity of 0.11-0.13. We also present a variety of robustness tests. Overall, the paper shows that higher population density worsens local air quality.
KW  - Population density
KW  - Air pollution
Y1  - 2020
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2020.103596
SN  - 0166-0462
SN  - 1879-2308
VL  - 86
PB  - Elsevier
CY  - Amsterdam
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Gudipudi, Venkata Ramana
A1  - Fluschnik, Till
A1  - Ros, Anselmo Garcia Cantu
A1  - Walther, Carsten
A1  - Kropp, Jürgen
T1  - City density and CO2 efficiency
JF  - Energy policy : the international journal of the political, economic, planning, environmental and social aspects of energy
N2  - Cities play a vital role in the global climate change mitigation agenda. City population density is one of the key factors that influence urban energy consumption and the subsequent GHG emissions. However, previous research on the relationship between population density and GHG emissions led to contradictory results due to urban/rural definition conundrum and the varying methodologies for estimating GHG emissions. This work addresses these ambiguities by employing the City Clustering Algorithm (CCA) and utilizing the gridded CO2 emissions data. Our results, derived from the analysis of all inhabited areas in the US, show a sub-linear relationship between population density and the total emissions (i.e. the sum of on-road and building emissions) on a per capita basis. Accordingly, we find that doubling the population density would entail a reduction in the total CO2 emissions in buildings and on-road sectors typically by at least 42%. Moreover, we find that population density exerts a higher influence on on-road emissions than buildings emissions. From an energy consumption point of view, our results suggest that on-going urban sprawl will lead to an increase in on-road energy consumption in cities and therefore stresses the importance of developing adequate local policy measures to limit urban sprawl. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
KW  - Population density
KW  - City boundaries
KW  - Urban energy
KW  - Sectoral emissions
KW  - Urban sprawl
Y1  - 2016
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2016.01.015
SN  - 0301-4215
SN  - 1873-6777
VL  - 91
SP  - 352
EP  - 361
PB  - Elsevier
CY  - Oxford
ER  -