Early-Life Exposure to Air Pollution Regulation and Later Educational Attainment: Evidence from China

Siwar Khelifa and Jie He

No 25-08, IRENE Working Papers from IRENE Institute of Economic Research

Abstract: This paper provides the first evidence from a developing-country setting on the long-term educational impacts of early-life exposure to a major environmental regulation. We study China's 1998 Two Control Zones policy and implement a difference-in-differences design comparing adjacent birth cohorts in targeted and non-targeted counties. We find no detectable effects of early-life exposure to the policy on long-term educational outcomes. Across a wide range of measures, including high school attendance, academic versus vocational track placement, and high-quality school attendance around age 15, as well as college entrance exam participation, exam scores, and post-secondary enrollment around age 18, the estimates are statistically indistinguishable from zero. These null results are robust across alternative specifications and hold in subgroups defined by gender and maternal education.

Keywords: Education; environmental regulation; TCZ policy; early-life conditions; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I18 I24 J24 Q51 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 48 pages
Date: 2025-12
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:irn:wpaper:25-08

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