This paper looks at the effects of air pollution on migration in China using changes in the average strength of thermal inversions over five-year periods as a source of exogenous variation for medium-run air pollution levels. Our findings suggest that air pollution is responsible for large changes in inflows and outflows of migration in China. Specifically, we find that a 10 percent increase in air pollution, holding everything else constant, is capable of reducing population through net outmigration by about 2.8 percent in a given county.

Whether international trade causes environmental damage to developing countries has caused widespread concern. We estimate trade liberalization's impact on environmental performance using unique firm-level pollution data in China.

The Sustainable Development Goal 7 seeks universal access to energy, substantial increase in the share of
renewable energy and doubling of energy efficiency efforts. The success of these targets most likely depends on
maximizing, where they exist, positive synergies or trade-offs with other development outcomes. Studies
investigating the relationship between energy efficiency and (un)employment remain inconclusive and mainly
focus their analysis on the energy-supply side, neglecting the demand side. Moreover, these empirical studies