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T H E C H A N G I N G W E A LTH O F N ATIO N S 2018
FIGURE 9.12 Average Annual Change in Losses from Ambient PM2.5, 1995–2015, versus Income Level in 2015 percent change
7.5 Bosnia and Herzegovina
Afghanistan
China
Chad 5.0
Iraq Myanmar
Uganda
Sri Lanka Nigeria
Vietnam
Mozambique India Bangladesh Cambodia
2.5 Burkina Faso Malawi 0
–2.5
Mali
Indonesia Bhutan Lesotho Lao PDR
Rwanda
Madagascar Liberia Guinea
Qatar Malaysia
Singapore Dominican Republic Thailand Belarus Slovak Republic United Arab Emirates Panama Lithuania Angola Chile Korea, Rep. Botswana United States Latvia France Canada Saudi Arabia
Nepal
Cameroon Ukraine Côte d’Ivoire Haiti Nicaragua Zimbabwe Kyrgyz Republic Georgia Niger Burundi Comoros Algeria Peru Azerbaijan
Spain
Benin
Brazil Mexico Gabon
Italy
Sweden Denmark Norway Switzerland
Turkey
–5.0 200
800
3,200
12,800
51,200
GNI per capita in 2015 (current US$) Low-income countries High-income non-OECD countries
Lower-middle-income countries High-income OECD countries
Upper-middle-income countries
Source: Data from IHME 2016. Note: Kuwait and Equatorial Guinea are not shown. GNI = gross national income; OECD = Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development; PM2.5 = particulate matter with a diameter of less than 2.5 microns.
Recommendations for the Way Forward: Improving the Measure of Pollution Losses for Human Capital Currently, pollution losses are valued by assuming that annual labor income is the same for all adult workers (ages 15–79 years), regardless of skills, experience, or education. Using the more granular data from the International Income Distribution Database used for the human capital estimates in chapter 6 would improve the existing estimates of expected lifetime labor income. Estimates of forgone labor output might be incorporated into the wealth accounts to measure the reduction in human capital due to risk factors such as air pollution, though with some caveats. As currently estimated, human capital includes only the working population ages 15 to 65, but 69 percent of premature deaths in 2015 due to air pollution exposure were suffered by children younger than age 15 and adults older than age 65. And, of the 30 percent of premature deaths in the population ages 15 to 65, not all occurred among workers.