An Ecological-Economic Approach to Air Pollution Regulation in New Delhi, India

Batabyal, Amitrajeet (2025): An Ecological-Economic Approach to Air Pollution Regulation in New Delhi, India.

Abstract

In this paper, we develop a new way of looking at the New Delhi, India, air pollution regulation problem that pays attention to both the ecological and the economic aspects of this problem. We first construct a theoretical model of air quality in New Delhi. We then show how the dynamic and stochastic properties of air quality in New Delhi can be used to derive two criterion functions for a regulator that are ecologically meaningful. Finally, using these two criteria, we discuss a probabilistic approach to the determination of the optimal length of time during which air quality regulations are in place. In our approach, the objective of the regulator is to maintain the ecological and economic viability of air quality in New Delhi in the long-run.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Air Quality, New Delhi, Regulation, Semi-Markov Process, Uncertainty
• Subjects: Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics ; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q5 - Environmental Economics > Q53 - Air Pollution ; Water Pollution ; Noise ; Hazardous Waste ; Solid Waste ; Recycling; Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics ; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q5 - Environmental Economics > Q57 - Ecological Economics: Ecosystem Services ; Biodiversity Conservation ; Bioeconomics ; Industrial Ecology; Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics ; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q5 - Environmental Economics > Q58 - Government Policy

References

Batabyal, A.A. 2000. Quantifying the transient response of ecological-economic systems to perturbations, Environmental Impact Assessment Review, 20, 125-133.

Batabyal, A.A. 2025. A simple model of crop residue burning and urban air pollution in New Delhi, India, Unpublished Manuscript, Rochester Institute of Technology.

Batabyal, A.A., and Beladi, H. 2004. Swidden agriculture in developing countries, Review of Development Economics, 8, 255-265.

Batabyal, A.A., and Beladi, H. 2022. Health interventions in a poor region and resilience in the presence of a pandemic, Applied Spatial Analysis and Policy, 14, 1-17.

Beladi, H., Liu, L., and Oladi, R. 2013. On pollution permits and abatement, Economics Letters, 119, 302-305.

Chowdhury, S., Dey, S., Tripathi, S.N., Beig, G., Mishra, A.K., and Sharma, S. 2017. “Traffic intervention” policy fails to mitigate air pollution in megacity Delhi, Environmental Science and Policy, 74, 8-13.

Cusworth, D.H., Mickley, L.J., Sulprizio, M.P., Liu, T., Marlier, M.E., DeFries, R.S., Guttikunda, S.K., and Gupta, P. 2018. Quantifying the influence of agricultural fires in northwest India on urban air pollution in Delhi, India, Environmental Research Letters, 13, 044018.

Dholakia, H.H., Purohit, P., Rao, S., and Garg, A. 2013. Impact of current policies on future air quality and health outcomes in Delhi, India, Atmospheric Environment, 75, 241-248.

Garg, A., and Gupta, N.C. 2020. The great smog month and spatial and monthly variation in air quality in ambient air in Delhi, India, Journal of Health and Pollution, 10, 1-14.

Greenstone, M., Lee, K., and Sahai, H. 2021. Indoor air quality, information, and socioeconomic status: Evidence from Delhi, American Economic Association Papers and Proceedings, 111, 420-424.

Gulia, S., Goyal, S.K., and Kumar, R. 2021. Air pollution episode analysis and qualitative evaluation of proposed control measures in Delhi city, in S.M.S. Nagendra, U. Schlink, A. Muller, and M. Khare, (Eds.), Urban Air Quality Monitoring, Modelling and Human Exposure Assessment, 225-237. Springer Nature, Singapore.

Holling, C.S. 1973. Resilience and stability of ecological systems, Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, 4, 1-23.

Kathuria, V. 2002. Vehicular pollution control in Delhi, Transportation Research Part D, 7, 373-387.

Krebs, C.J. 1985. Ecology, 3rd edition. Harper and Row, New York, NY.

Kumar, N., and Foster, A.D. 2009. Air quality interventions and spatial dynamics of air pollution in Delhi and its surroundings, International Journal of Environment and Waste Management, 4, 85-111.

Lan, R., Eastham, S.D., Liu, T., Norford, L.K., and Barrett, S.R.H. 2022. Air quality impacts of crop residue burning in India and mitigation alternatives, Nature Communications, 13, 6537.

Lawless, J.F. 2003. Statistical Models and Methods for Lifetime Data. Wiley, Hoboken, NJ.

Mariel, P., Khan, M.A, and Meyerhoff, J. 2022. Valuing individuals’ preferences for air quality improvement: Evidence from a discrete choice experiment in South Delhi, Economic Analysis and Policy, 74, 432-447.

Mishra, R.K., Pandey, A., Pandey, G., and Kumar, A. 2019. The effect of odd-even driving scheme on PM2.5 and PM1.0 emission, Transportation Research Part D, 67, 541-552.

Nagpure, A.S., Gurjar, B.R., Kumar, V., and Kumar, P. 2016. Estimation of exhaust and non-exhaust gaseous, particulate matter and air toxics emissions from on-road vehicles in Delhi, Atmospheric Environment, 127, 118-124.

Perrings, C. 1998. Resilience in the dynamics of economy-environment systems, Environmental and Resource Economics, 11, 503-520.

Pimm, S.L. 1984. The complexity and stability of ecosystems, Nature, 307, 321-326.

Rani, A., and Kumar, M. 2023. Seasonal changes in air pollutants and their relation to vegetation over the megacity Delhi national capital region, Environmental Sciences Proceedings, 27, 16.

Rawat, M., Singh, U.K., and Subramanian, V. 2010. Movement of toxic metals from small-scale industrial areas: a case study from Delhi, India, International Journal of Environment and Waste Management, 5, 224-236.

Ross, S.M. 1996. Stochastic Processes, 2nd edition. Wiley, New York, NY.

Ross, S.M. 2003. Introduction to Probability Models, 8th edition. Academic Press, San Diego, CA.

Sahu, S.K., Beig, G., and Parkhi, N.S. 2011. Emissions inventory of anthropogenic PM2.5 and PM10 in Delhi during commonwealth games 2010, Atmospheric Environment, 45, 6180-6190.

Saxena, P., Sonwani, S., Srivastava, A., Mongia, N., Tejan, S., and Bharadwaj, S. 2021. Impact of crop residue burning in Haryana on the air quality of Delhi, India, Heliyon, 7, e06973.

Sehgal, M., Tyagi, S.K., and Gautam, S.K. 2016. Air quality in Delhi: Status and concerns, International Journal of Environmental Studies, 73, 905-916.

Singh, D., Gupta, I., and Roy, A. 2023. The association of asthma and air pollution: Evidence from India, Economics and Human Biology, 51, 101278.

Tijms, H.C. 2003. A First Course in Stochastic Models. Wiley, Chichester, UK.

Veron, R. 2006. Remaking urban environments: The political ecology of air pollution in Delhi, Environment and Planning A, 38, 2093-2109.