On the Conditional Effect of Fine Particulate Matter on Cancer Mortality: Case Study of OECD Countries

Given the adverse effects of air pollution on human health, a lot of studies have empirically investigated the causal effect of air pollution on health. However, no study has considered how fine particulate matter interacts with GDP per capita to affect cancer mortality. This study therefore uses data for 20 OECD countries to estimate the conditional effect of air pollution on cancer mortality. To this end, a fixed effect panel regression model which takes both country and time fixed effects into consideration is estimated. The conditional causal effect of fine particulate matter was found to be negative 0.22 and significant at 1% level.