On the Short-Term Impact of Pollution: The Effect of PM 2.5 on Emergency Room Visits

In this paper, we study the effect of fine particulate matter (PM 2.5) exposure on Emergency Room (ER) visits in Chile. Our identification strategy exploits daily PM 2.5 variation within a hospital-month-year combination. Unlike previous papers, our data allow us to impact high levels pollution while controlling for avoidance behavior. We find that one standard deviation increase increases respiratory ER by 1.4 percent. This is positive all age groups but stronger children (less than five years old) and elderly (more 65 old). Moreover, effects are geographical areas which share emissions from residential wood burning more 75 Finally, results robust instrumenting using wind direction speed other pollutants.