AAE graduate student Austin Williams and his advisor Dan Phaneuf have been working on understanding the role that air pollution plays in expenditures on respiratory ailments. Spending on these ailments totals nearly $75 billion in the United States every year, with air pollution often exacerbating symptoms from respiratory illness. The two have found that pollution increases spending by 8.3%, meaning that we should be willing to pay at least $6 billion to improve air quality.
Austin has recently complete his Ph.D. and will be a fellow at the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta next year, where he will continue his work on the economics of health and the environment.