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The grandkids aren't alright: the intergenerational effects of prenatal pollution exposure

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  • Jonathan Colmer
  • John Voorheis
Abstract
Using newly linked survey and administrative data, providing more than 150 million parent-child links, we show that regulation-induced improvements in early life air quality have intergenerational effects on human capital accumulation in the United States - the second-generation is more likely to attend college. Supporting evidence indicates that intergenerational transmission arises from greater parental resources and investments, rather than heritable channels. Our findings suggest that within-generation estimates of marginal damages substantially underestimate the total welfare effects of improving environmental quality.

Suggested Citation

  • Jonathan Colmer & John Voorheis, 2020. "The grandkids aren't alright: the intergenerational effects of prenatal pollution exposure," CEP Discussion Papers dp1733, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    • Handle: RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1733
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    Cited by:

    1. Colmer, Jonathan & Lin, Dajun & Liu, Siying & Shimshack, Jay, 2021. "Why are pollution damages lower in developed countries? Insights from high-Income, high-particulate matter Hong Kong," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    2. Li, Huan & Zhang, Ruohao & Khanna, Neha, 2021. "Environmental Justice: A Multigenerational Perspective," 2021 Annual Meeting, August 1-3, Austin, Texas 313873, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    3. Bakkensen, Laura A. & Ma, Lala & Muehlenbachs, Lucija & Benitez, Lina, 2024. "Cumulative impacts in environmental justice: Insights from economics and policy," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    4. Moritz A. Drupp & Ulrike Kornek & Jasper N. Meya & Lutz Sager, 2021. "Inequality and the Environment: The Economics of a Two-Headed Hydra," CESifo Working Paper Series 9447, CESifo.
    5. Luis Sarmiento, 2022. "Air pollution and the productivity of high‐skill labor: evidence from court hearings," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 124(1), pages 301-332, January.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    air pollution; environmental regulation; social mobility; human capital;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H23 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies
    • Q53 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Air Pollution; Water Pollution; Noise; Hazardous Waste; Solid Waste; Recycling
    • J00 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - General

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