COVID-19 and Transboundary Air Pollution: Did Coronavirus Improve Air Quality in Taiwan?
Yun-Peng Lu, Jui-Chung Yang, Academia Economic Papers, 49(4), 495–526, 2021.
We study Taiwan’s air quality after the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in January 2020. We find a significant reduction, about 14.6%, in the dailyPM2.5 concentration after the COVID-19 outbreak. Our paper controls for both year effects and time-of-year effects by comparing the average change over time in the PM2.5 levels before and after the outbreak of COVID-19 in the period from October 2019 to April 2020, to the average change over time from October to April in 2016/17, 2017/18, and 2018/19, and is robust to the policies and seasonal patterns in each year. Among the 14.6% decrease in PM2.5 concentration, we find that about 12.9 percentage points are related to the air quality improvement in China, Japan, and Korea and the reduction of transboundary airpollution.
FDA Global Drug Inspections:Surveillance Of ManufacturingEstablishments Remains WellBelow Pre-COVID-19 Levels
Emily Cuddy, Yun-Peng Lu, and David B. Ridley, Health Affairs. 42(12): 1758-1766. 2023.
During the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Foodand Drug Administration (FDA) halted inspections of most overseas drugmanufacturing establishments. Looking at data from the period 2012–22,we observed steep declines in both foreign and domestic inspections in2020. By 2022, numbers of inspections remained well below prepandemiclevels, with a 79 percent decrease in foreign inspections and a 35 percentdecline in domestic inspections compared with 2019. There was nocorresponding reduction in drug manufacturing or imports. Also, theresources allocated per inspection surged, although the FDA’s overallbudget and staffing remained steady. Finally, citations rose drastically,despite all establishments being given advance notice of inspections. Thefindings of our study underscore the pressing need to explore alternativemethods for ensuring drug safety.