About Repository

This repository contains key the essential datasets used for the analysis presented in the paper authored by Maureen Cropper, Nicholas Muller, Yongjoon Park, and Victoria Perez-Zetune, published in Journal of Environmental Economics and Management (2023), titled "The impact of the clean air act on particulate matter in the 1970s."

Description of the data

There are two folders in this repository --- data and us_aqcr_shape

data

In this folder, there are three csv files.

1. tsp_nonatt_status_county_level.csv

The dataset includes county-level non-attainment status data for Total Suspended Particulates (TSP) for the years between 1969 and 1978. The descriptions of the variables are provided below:

year: year
AQCR: unique Air Quality Control Regions id
fips: county FIPS code
State: state name
tsp_neds: 1 if county is out of attainment, 0 if it is in attainment under the offical AQCR designation
tsp_imputed: 1 if county is out of attainment, 0 if it is in attainment under the imputed defitnion
tsp_arithmetic_mean: annual average TSP levels

2. tsp_nonatt_status_aqcr_level.csv

The dataset includes aqcr-level (Air Quality Control Regions) non-attainment status data for Total Suspended Particulates (TSP) for the year 1972 and 1976. The descriptions of the variables are provided below:

AQCR: unique Air Quality Control Regions id
year: year
att0_nonatt1: 1 if county is out of attainment, 0 if it is in attainment under the offical AQCR designation

3. county_characteristics.csv

The dataset comprises data on annual economic conditions at the county level spanning the years from 1969 to 1980. The descriptions of the variables are provided below:

year: year
fips: county FIPS code
population: population (unit: 1,000)
per_income: per capita income
employment_total: number of employments (unit: 1,000)

us_aqcr_shape

This folder contains the shape files necessary for mapping the AQCR (Air Quality Control Region) regions.