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Smoggy with a Chance of Altruism: The Effects of Ozone Alerts on Outdoor Recreation and Driving in A tlanta
Author(s) -
Noonan Douglas S.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
policy studies journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.773
H-Index - 69
eISSN - 1541-0072
pISSN - 0190-292X
DOI - 10.1111/psj.12045
Subject(s) - recreation , air quality index , metropolitan area , regression discontinuity design , business , altruism (biology) , quality (philosophy) , environmental health , environmental economics , psychology , economics , geography , social psychology , political science , medicine , meteorology , philosophy , archaeology , epistemology , pathology , law
Metropolitan smog alerts are prominent public information campaigns designed to enhance public health and to curb driving and other emissions. Unlike many other voluntary information‐based environmental policies, air quality alerts target household behavior via forecast information about ambient concentrations rather than firm or product characteristics. This paper explores behaviors with high emissions (driving) and with high exposure (outdoor recreation) and underscores the difference between altruistic and risk aversion motivations. Behavioral impacts are identified using the threshold nature of daily air quality forecasts. A regression discontinuity ( RD ) design finds elderly users and exercisers tend to curtail their use of a major park following smog alerts. The RD design also reveals that households do not drive less on smog alert days. Juxtaposing high emissions behavior with high exposure behavior in the same study highlights how public forecast information may better trigger some responses and struggle to trigger others.