Air pollution has a detrimental impact on population health, but the effectiveness of policy measures targeting pollution is underexplored. I exploit the natural experiment generated by the staggered implementation of low emission zones in large cities across Germany to assess their impact on health. Using register data on outpatient and inpatient health care, I find that low emission zones reduce the number of patients with cardiovascular disease by 2–3%. This effect is particularly pronounced for those over the age of 65. The findings suggest that low emission zones can be an effective way to reduce air pollution and improve health.

中文翻译：

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低排放区和人口健康

空气污染对人口健康有不利影响，但针对污染的政策措施的有效性尚未得到充分探索。我利用在德国各大城市交错实施低排放区所产生的自然实验来评估它们对健康的影响。使用门诊和住院医疗保健的登记数据，我发现低排放区将心血管疾病患者的数量减少了 2-3%。这种影响对于 65 岁以上的人来说尤为明显。研究结果表明，低排放区可以成为减少空气污染和改善健康的有效方式。