Spatial-Temporal Effects of PM_2.5 on Health Burden: Evidence from China

By collecting the panel data of 29 regions in China from 2008 to 2017, this study used the spatial Durbin model (SDM) to explore the spatial effect of PM_2.5 exposure on the health burden of residents. The most obvious findings to emerge from this study are that: health burden and PM_2.5 exposure are not randomly distributed over different regions in China, but have obvious spatial correlation and spatial clustering characteristics. The maximum PM_2.5 concentrations have a significant positive effect on outpatient expense and outpatient visits of residents in the current period, and the impact of PM_2.5 pollution has a significant temporal lag effect on residents' health burden. PM_2.5 exposure has a spatial spillover effect on the health burden of residents, and the PM_2.5 concentrations in the surrounding regions or geographically close regions have a positive influence on the health burden in the particular region. The impact of PM_2.5 exposure is divided into the direct effect and the indirect effect (the spatial spillover effect), and the spatial spillover effect is greater than that of the direct effect. Therefore, we conclude that PM_2.5 exposure has a spatial spillover effect and temporal lag effect on the health burden of residents, and strict regulatory policies are needed to mitigate the health burden caused by air pollution.