Air pollution and helping strangers: evidence from lost-letter experiments in Beijing and Delhi

About this Event

The seminar presents lost letter field experiments from Beijing and Delhi. Small acts of help toward strangers can provide observable evidence about prosocial preferences and civic norms, and how often they occur may depend on the conditions people face. We study whether short run air pollution changes one such act: posting a stamped and addressed letter found near a mailbox. In lost letter field experiments in Beijing and Delhi, each letter drop is matched to hourly pollution readings, and fires in the surrounding region interacted with wind provide quasi experimental variation in air quality. Worse air makes posting more likely: an instrument induced deterioration, scaled by a one standard deviation change in PM10, raises posting by about 11 percentage points in Beij…

This preview is intentionally limited. Unlock full access to view complete context, speakers, and supporting event materials.