Student Seminar by Mr. Yuan Liang on Apr 28, 2026, 2:00PM

Title: Air Pollution and Urban Mobility: Two Quasi-experimental Designs

Speaker: Mr. Yuan Liang (Department of Geography, Hong Kong Baptist University)

Date: Apr 20, 2026 (Monday)

Time: 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm

Venue: Room 1010, CLL, Department of Geography, 10/F, The Jokey Club Tower, The University of Hong Kong

Registration Link: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/r/L6i8Kxxf2D

ITS Student Committee will provide a beverage for registered participants.

Abstract: I will share two studies that employ quasi-experimental designs to explore the bidirectional causal link between air pollution and urban mobility in urban China. The first study uses thermal inversion, a meteorological phenomenon, as an instrumental variable for air pollution to estimate the causal effect of air pollution on dockless bike-sharing usage. The second applies a difference-in-differences approach to evaluate the causal impact of fare-free public transport on air quality. The findings offer insights into the societal impacts of air pollution through the lens of urban mobility and hold implications for sustainable urban transport policies.

Bios: Yuan Liang is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Geography at Hong Kong Baptist University and a former visiting student in the Transport Studies Unit at the University of Oxford. His current research uses causal evidence to explore the linkages between climate change, air pollution, and urban mobility. His work has been published in Transportation Research Part A/D/E, Transportation, and Environmental Research Letters.