IdEP Seminar, Aline Bütikofer - "Long-Term Consequences of Air Pollution: Does Age or Years of Exposure Matter?"
Institute of Economics
Date: 25 March 2024 / 12:00 - 13:15
Red room (USI main building at the Executive Center), Università della Svizzera italiana, Campus Ovest
This paper examines the long-term impacts of early childhood pollution exposure by exploiting the sharp decrease in acid rain in Norway after the enactment of the Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution. We combine a difference-in-differences and a movers’ design to analyze the outcomes between cohorts born in municipalities before and after a significant decrease in pollution exposure relative to those same cohorts born in municipalities with little initial exposure. We find that a higher pollution level is associated with lower academic performance and that children are most vulnerable to pollution exposure before the age of 4 years.
Aline Bütikofer
Professor in the Department of Economics at Norwegian School of Economics
