AccScience Publishing / AJWEP / Online First / DOI: 10.36922/AJWEP025130088
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ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE

The effects of urbanization on air pollution and public health in Vietnam: An empirical analysis

Duy Hung Bui1 ,  Xuan-Hoa Nghiem2*
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1 Faculty of Economics, Banking Academy of Vietnam, Dong Da District, Hanoi, Vietnam
2 Faculty of Economics and Management, International School, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, Vietnam
AJWEP, 025130088 https://doi.org/10.36922/AJWEP025130088
Received: 25 March 2025 | Revised: 29 May 2025 | Accepted: 3 June 2025 | Published online: 20 June 2025
© 2025 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
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Abstract

Vietnam’s rapid urbanization presents a critical challenge at the intersection of economic development and environmental health. This study examines the causal relationships between urbanization, air pollution, and public health outcomes across Vietnam’s major urban centers. Using a comprehensive panel dataset spanning 2013 – 2022 for 10 Vietnamese cities, we employed instrumental variable (IV) techniques to address endogeneity concerns and establish robust causal inference. Our findings revealed that urbanization significantly exacerbates fine particulate matter (PM2.5) air pollution levels, with each percentage point increase in urbanization rate associated with a 0.54 μg/m3 rise in PM2.5 concentration. Across IV analysis using industrial output share as an instrument, we demonstrated that PM2.5 pollution substantially impacts respiratory health outcomes, with each 1 μg/m3 increase leading to approximately 2.5 additional respiratory disease cases per 1,000 population. Environmental policies implemented across Vietnamese cities since 2017 have achieved modest but measurable success in mitigating pollution levels. These results underscore the urgent necessity for integrated sustainable urban planning and robust environmental governance to safeguard public health in Vietnam’s rapidly transforming urban landscape.

Keywords
Urbanization
Air pollution
Public health
Instrumental variables
Vietnam
Environmental policy
PM2.5
Respiratory disease
Funding
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the Banking Academy of Vietnam.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare they have no competing interests.
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Asian Journal of Water, Environment and Pollution, Electronic ISSN: 1875-8568 Print ISSN: 0972-9860, Published by AccScience Publishing
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