Emtiaz Hossain Hritan

Emtiaz Hossain Hritan

Economics PhD

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A list of all the posts and pages found on the site. For you robots out there is an XML version available for digesting as well.

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Posts

Future Blog Post

less than 1 minute read

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This post will show up by default. To disable scheduling of future posts, edit config.yml and set future: false.

Blog Post number 4

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This is a sample blog post. Lorem ipsum I can’t remember the rest of lorem ipsum and don’t have an internet connection right now. Testing testing testing this blog post. Blog posts are cool.

Blog Post number 3

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Blog Post number 2

less than 1 minute read

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This is a sample blog post. Lorem ipsum I can’t remember the rest of lorem ipsum and don’t have an internet connection right now. Testing testing testing this blog post. Blog posts are cool.

Blog Post number 1

less than 1 minute read

Published:

This is a sample blog post. Lorem ipsum I can’t remember the rest of lorem ipsum and don’t have an internet connection right now. Testing testing testing this blog post. Blog posts are cool.

portfolio

publications

The impacts of air pollution on traffic accidents across the United States

Published in SSRN, 2022

Air pollution can lead to traffic accidents either by reducing the road visibility or impacting the driver’s health and cognitive abilities. The objective of this paper is to explore this relationship between air pollution which is measured by PM2. 5 and traffic accident which is measured by fatalities caused by it while route and light conditions, weather factors, and driver’s drinking behaviors are controlled. The data used in this paper are county level daily data for the years 2011-2015 of 28 counties across the United States. Employing a Zero-truncated Poisson regression model, we have found a positive and statistically significant relationship between air pollution and traffic accidents.

Recommended citation: Hritan, Emtiaz Hossain and Vanna-iampikul, Pruek, The impacts of air pollution on traffic accidents across the United States (February 4, 2022). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4039404 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4039404 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4039404

Impact of Air Pollution on Cognitive Performance: Evidence from a Natural Experiment

Published in Working paper, 2023

Abstract: Air pollution affects respiratory health, the central nervous system, and cognitive development; which may in turn affect student performance on standardized tests. To estimate the causal relationship between air pollution and students’ test scores, I use the collapse of I-35W Mississippi River Bridge in Minneapolis, Minnesota as a natural experiment which lead to a year-long improvement in air quality for nearby schools. Using a Two-way Fixed Effects (TWFE) model as well as a Synthetic Difference-in-Differences model, I do not find any evidence that improved air quality lead to improved test scores, which suggests that test-day exposure to air pollution may have a distinct cognitive effect compared to long-term exposures.

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Beware of Dog: Impact of Air Pollution on Dog Bites

Published in Working paper, 2023

Abstract: As air pollution has been shown to affect the physical health of both human and animal, the natural question is whether air pollution has the same effects on the aggressive behavior of dogs as it has on humans. In this paper, I estimate the effect of air pollution on dog bite incidence by employing a Poisson pseudo-maximum likelihood (PPML) method on the dog bites data from seven US cities: New York, Dallas, Baltimore, Houston, Louisville, Chicago and Baton Rouge. To mitigate the possible endogeneity problem, I also use wind direction as an instrument for air pollution. Air pollution is found not to have a statistically significant effect on dog bites, animal bites, and animal aggression. However, weather conditions, especially maximum temperature, are identified as significant factors, showing a positive association with the number of dog bites.

Silencing the Rails: A Study of the Noise-Safety Trade-off in Railway Quiet Zones

Published in Working paper, 2023

Abstract: Quiet zones, established to alleviate noise pollution at railroad-highway crossings while ensuring public safety, are examined in this study as a natural experiment to assess their impact on accident frequency in the United States. Utilizing highway-rail grade crossing accident data from the Federal Railroad Administration between 1994 and 2023 and employing various estimators suitable for difference-in-differences designs with staggered treatment, I find that the establishment of quiet zones is linked to an increased number of accidents. Although no significant effect is observed on the cost of damaged vehicles, the establishment of quiet zones is associated with a rise in user fatalities and injuries. This study underscores policy implications, probing the safety standards and cost-effectiveness of quiet zones, and highlights the potential of emerging vehicle safety technology to mitigate grade crossing accidents.

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