Methodology for valuing the health impacts of air pollution

This discussion note is meant to inform a joint publication by the World Bank and Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) on the economic costs of air pollution. Air pollution is a global challenge and one that is acutely felt in developing countries. Illnesses caused by ambient and household air pollution claim the lives of nearly 6 million people each year, with a disproportionate majority of deaths occurring in low- and middle-income countries. The goal of the joint World Bank–IHME report is to raise awareness about the severity of this challenge and to strengthen the business case for countries to take action on reducing air pollution. To that end, the report will present new evidence on the health impacts of air pollution from the Global Burden of Disease 2013 study (GBD 2013), provide estimates of the economic costs that societies bear as a result of these impacts, and highlight the potential for economic benefits resulting from air quality management and emissions reductions.
A secondary goal of the joint World Bank–IHME report is to further the development of a consistent framework for valuing the costs of air pollution in World Bank operations. Whether in assessing potential investments or in advising client governments on policy, the World Bank undertakes a variety of activities that require it to estimate the economic costs of pollution. In recent decades, tremendous progress has been made in understanding both the epidemiology and the economics of health risks from pollution. The joint World Bank–IHME report provides an opportunity to assess what has been done and to
bring more uniformity and consistency to the way pollution costs are valued across World Bank operations. The need for greater consistency was noted, for example, in a 2014 review by Cropper and Khanna of the World Bank’s methodology for estimating damages from particulate emissions for the adjusted net savings (ANS) indicator (Cropper and Khanna 2014).
The joint report with the IHME will explore several alternative approaches to valuing health risks from air pollution and will provide guidance on key issues in implementing these approaches, including when certain approaches may be more appropriate than others. This discussion note serves as a background paper for the joint report and provides a detailed discussion of the key methodological choices that must be made in valuing the health impacts of pollution. This note also makes recommendations on how these challenges can be addressed. Although past efforts to value the health impacts of pollution have greatly
contributed to the discussion of challenges and potential solutions, analysts have tended to make some methodological choices on an ad hoc basis. The hope in developing this note is to bring greater clarity to what the issues are and to provide guidance on how the issues can be addressed consistently.

source:

https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/entities/publication/fde842c6-6ad5-5fec-8398-e4b5b7f807d2