Drawing upon the evidence produced in economics and psychology, we show that air-quality-induced mood changes affect the decisions of consumers expenditure on pork meats. We collect the particulate matter (PM) concentrations records at three regions-Seoul, Incheon, and Gyeonggi, and after de-seasonalizing its daily records, combine them with the weekly household food expenditure data set obtained from the household panel survey conducted from January 2010 to December 2014 by Korea`s Rural Development Administration. We utilize a random effect tobit panel model augmented by Mundlak`s device. After controlling for socio-economic and other seasonal factors affecting pork meats expenditure, we find the ambient air pollution is strongly significantly correlated with the pork meats expenditure. A week with a PM10 that is 10ug/m3 higher than the average in that month of the five years would be predicted to see 23.9 won increased in the next week per household expenditure on pork meats. As potential explanations of this finding, we propose a mood congruency effect, saliency effect, and availability heuristic prevail in consumers` food purchasing behavior.
