Information as a shield: does China’s new air quality standards mitigate health damage and inequality?

Insufficient pollution information hinders avoidance behaviour and widens health disparities. Extending the health-capital model, we show that disclosing air quality information mitigates both health damage and inequality from pollution. Using China Family Panel Studies from 2010 to 2020, this article employs difference-in-differences to evaluate how air quality information disclosure under the 2012 New Ambient Air Quality Standards affects public health and health inequality. We find it significantly intensifies the marginal health effect of pollution and reduces its inequality consequence, and a 1% pollution rise leads to a 0.519 larger adverse effect on health and a 0.108 stronger effect on health inequality. The results are robust to alternative specifications, measurement replacement and IV estimation. Mechanism evidence indicates that disclosure raises pollution awareness, curbs outdoor exposure and stimulates protective consumption and pollution mitigation. The effects are stronger among disadvantaged groups and areas, highlighting that granular, accessible environmental information improves welfare without widening disparities.