报告题目： Coal Mining Decline and Opioid Overdose Mortality in Rural Central Appalachia: Need for Just Energy Transition
报告人： 雷震，Pennsylvania State University教授
时间：7.2 星期二（10：00 – 12：00）
地点：新主楼 A1148
讲座系列： 经 济
摘要:
The energy transition is liable to impose negative impacts on communities reliant on legacy industries such as fossil fuels. This paper provides empirical evidence on how a decline in coal production from 2010 to 2017 increased opioid overdose mortality in coal communities in rural central Appalachia, a region with significant coal mining activities and an epicenter of opioid use disorder. We separated the channel of “deaths of despair” whereby economic distress, unemployment, and hopelessness might give rise to opioid use and misuse, from the “coal mines to drugs” pipeline that could result in “prevalence of drugs” as coal miners are likely to suffer from job-related injuries and pain and treated with painkillers. We first conducted semi-structured interviews with key informants in Logan County, West Virginia that stressed the ripple effects of the decline in coal production on coal communities. We then conducted econometric analyses, using county-level longitudinal data covering 2010-2017. We found significant impacts of coal production, but insignificant impacts of coal employment, on opioid overdose mortality rate, indicating the dominance of the “deaths of despair” channel. Our paper highlights the importance of a just energy transition and the need for providing support to communities that might otherwise be harmed by the energy transition.
汇报人简介：
Zhen Lei is currently a professor of energy and environmental economics at the Pennsylvania State University. He has expertise in both economics and natural sciences, holding a Ph.D. degree in Agricultural & Resource Economics and a Ph.D. degree in Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Chemistry. His research interests include energy and environmental economics, health economics, science and technology policy, economics of innovation and intellectual properties, big data and data science, industrial organization, development economics, and applied econometrics.
