水体农药污染对老年群体的医疗支出的影响分析

The impact of pesticide use on elders’medical expenditure through water pollution

利用2002~2018年全国23个省、直辖市、自治区的面板数据,通过构建双向固定效应模型,分析了农药污染对本地老年群体的医疗支出的影响,以及农药污染从流域上游扩散到下游对邻近省份老年群体的医疗支出的影响.结果显示,人均农药使用量每增加1%会使本地老年群体的人均医疗支出提高约15.26元,但农药污染的跨省影响总体不显著.该影响存在饮用水来源方面的异质性,特别是当饮用水源为非自来水时,本地人均农药使用量每增加1%会使本地老年群体的人均医疗支出提高约179.50元,并显著影响下游的人均医疗支出.建议地方政府持续推进降低本地农药使用的农业和环境保护政策,着力解决农药污染的省内问题,建设饮用水改造项目改善老年群体饮用水水质.

With a panel dataset of 23 provinces from 2002 to 2018,a two-way fixed effects estimator was used to evaluate the impacts of pesticide use on local elders’medical expenditure as well as on that of elders located in downstream provinces.According to the results,a 1%increase in local per capita pesticide usage led to an increase of approximately 15.26 yuan in per capita medical expenditure for the local elders,while the effect of local pesticide use for elders located in downstream provinces was statistically insignificant.Heterogeneous effects were observed based on drinking water sources.In particular,a 1%increase in local per capita pesticide use led to an increase of approximately 179.50 yuan on medical expenditure for elders who relied on non-tap water sources.These results suggested that local governments should continue to implement agricultural and environmental policies that reduce local pesticide usage,address pesticide pollution within province,and increase tap water accessibility for elders in rural areas.