Air pollution has been associated with a number of detrimental health effects for children. Another potentially substantive, but previously unappreciated, effect of air pollution on children is diminished academic performance, presumably resulting in reduced human capital accumulation and reduced future earnings. In this paper we investigate the relationship between outdoor air pollution levels and standardized state test scores of California public school children. To do this we combine individual family data and community pollution data from the Children's Health Study (CHS), a longitudinal respiratory health study of Southern California school children, with publicly available information on California standardized test scores by grade, school, and year. We find that a 10% decrease in outdoor PM 10 , PM 2.5 , or NO 2 would raise math test scores by 0.15%, 0.34%, or 0.18%, while a 10% decrease in outdoor PM 2.5 increases reading scores by 0.21%. To put these effects in perspective, if it were possible to reduce PM 2.5 by 10% for low-income students but not for high-income students, the gap in math test scores between high-and low-income 8 th grade students would fall by nearly one thirtieth. 2

Published Dec 1, 2009

Zweig, J. S., Ham, J. C., & Avol, E. L. (2009). Air Pollution and Academic Performance: Evidence from California Schools. https://radic8.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/test-scores-submit-1.pdf