The Effect of Leaded Gasoline on Elderly Mortality: Evidence from Regulatory Exemptions

摘要

Leaded gasoline is still used globally for aviation and automotive rac-ing. Exploiting regulatory exemptions and a novel quasi-experiment, we find that leaded gasoline use in racing increases ambient lead, elevated blood lead rates, and elderly mortality. The mortality esti-mates indicate that each gram of lead added to gasoline exceeds $1,100 in damages. Our setting allows us to rule out potential con-founders, such as correlated pollutants or socioeconomic status. We provide the first causal estimates linking adult mortality to leaded gasoline, highlight the value of banning on-road leaded gasoline, and present policy-relevant cost estimates at the lowest ambient lev-els to date.