Health effects of Low Emission Zones: Evidence from German hospitals

Abstract

This paper studies the impact of Low Emission Zones, restricting the access of high-emission vehicles to inner-city areas, on hospitalizations. For identification, we exploit variation in the timing and the spatial distribution of the introduction of new Low Emission Zones across cities in Germany since 2008. We combine detailed geo-coded hospitalization data from the universe of German hospitals with the geographic coverage of Low Emission Zones over the period from 2006 to 2016. We find that Low Emission Zones reduce levels of air pollution in urban areas. These improvements in air quality translate into small but statistically significant population health benefits by lowering the share of diagnoses related to air pollution for hospitals located within a Low Emission Zone after it becomes effective. The results are mainly driven by reductions in circulatory and chronic lower respiratory diseases.