49 Pages Posted: 22 Sep 2017

Date Written: September 21, 2017

Abstract

This paper examines the impacts of air pollution on criminal activities by exploiting three dimensions of variations in a rich quasi-experiment: the NOx Budget Trading Program. This program has been well documented to decrease NOx emissions and ozone concentrations in participating states. Employing a triple-difference estimator, we find robust evidence that the cap-and-trade market statistically significantly reduced violent crimes in participating states, whereas property crimes were less affected. Instrumental variable estimates suggest that lowering pollution emissions may play an important role in reducing violent criminal behaviors.