Air pollution has been associated with a number of detrimental health effects for children. One of the main findings of the recent medical, epidemiological and economics literature is that pollution has a positive and significant effect on asthma exacerbation. Pollution has also been associated with new onset asthma (McConnell et al. 2002), as well as other respiratory diseases, lower lung function, hay fever (Gauderman et al. 2001, McConnell et al. 2003) and infant mortality (Chay and Greenstone 2003a, 2003b, Currie and Neidell 2005). 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.

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