Pollution and learning: Causal evidence from Obama’s Iran sanctions

Anthony Heyes and Soodeh Saberian

Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 2024, vol. 125, issue C

Abstract: We provide evidence of a substantial impact of pollution in the vicinity of a school on student learning using standardized test results from the universe of Tehran junior schools. The 2010 US sanctions prevented the sale of refined petroleum products to Iran. Causal identification exploits that the impact of sanctions on air quality in the vicinity of schools in the city varied according to the proximity of each school to roads. Relative academic performance dropped at more road-exposed (variously-measured) schools. Roads upwind appear to have four times the impact compared to those downwind, aligning with the prevailing wind direction which blows 80% of the time from the west, a finding that also provides compelling evidence against alternative interpretations.

Keywords: Air pollution; Social costs; Cognitive productivity; Human capital; Academic achievement (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0095069624000391
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jeeman:v:125:y:2024:i:c:s0095069624000391

DOI: 10.1016/j.jeem.2024.102965

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Environmental Economics and Management is currently edited by M.A. Cole, A. Lange, D.J. Phaneuf, D. Popp, M.J. Roberts, M.D. Smith, C. Timmins, Q. Weninger and A.J. Yates

More articles in Journal of Environmental Economics and Management from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().