Agricultural Fires and Infant Health

Marcos A. Rangel and Tom Vogl

No 22955, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Fire has long served as a tool in agriculture, but this practice's human capital consequences have proved difficult to study. Drawing on data from satellites, air monitors, and vital records, we study how smoke from sugarcane harvest fires affects infant health in the Brazilian state that produces one-fifth of the world's sugarcane. Because fires track economic activity, we exploit wind for identification, finding that late-pregnancy exposure to upwind fires decreases birth weight, gestational length, and in utero survival, but not early neonatal survival. Other fires positively predict health, highlighting the importance of disentangling pollution from economic activities that drive it.

JEL-codes: H23 I15 O13 Q53 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea
Note: CH DEV EEE EH
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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