The unintended impacts of agricultural fires: Human capital in China

Joshua Graff Zivin, Tong Liu, Yingquan Song, Qu Tang and Peng Zhang

Journal of Development Economics, 2020, vol. 147, issue C

Abstract: The practice of burning agricultural waste is ubiquitous around the world, yet the external human capital costs from those fires have been underexplored. Using data from the National College Entrance Examination (NCEE) and agricultural fires in China from 2005 to 2011, this paper investigates the impacts of fires on cognitive performance. We find that a one-standard-deviation increase in the difference between upwind and downwind fires during the exam decreases the total exam score by 1.42 percent of a standard deviation (or 0.6 points), and further decreases the probability of getting into first-tier universities by 0.51 percent of a standard deviation.

Keywords: Cognitive performance; Human capital; Agricultural fire; Air pollution (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I20 I30 J20 O13 Q10 Q53 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (54)

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Related works:
Working Paper: The Unintended Impacts of Agricultural Fires: Human Capital in China (2019)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:deveco:v:147:y:2020:i:c:s0304387820301358

DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2020.102560

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