The siren song of cicadas: Early-life pesticide exposure and later-life male mortality

Jason Fletcher and Hamid Noghanibehambari

Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 2024, vol. 123, issue C

Abstract: This paper studies the long-term effects of in-utero and early-life exposure to pesticide use on adulthood and old-age longevity. We use the cyclical emergence of cicadas in the eastern half of the United States as a shock that raises the pesticide use among tree crop growing farmlands. We implement a difference-in-difference framework and employ Social Security Administration death records over the years 1975–2005 linked to the complete count 1940 census. We find that males born in top-quartile tree-crop counties and exposed to a cicada event during fetal development and early-life live roughly 2.2 months shorted lives; those with direct farm exposure face a reduction of nearly a year. We provide empirical evidence to examine mortality selection before adulthood, endogenous fertility, and differential data linkage rates. Additional analyses suggests that reductions in education and income during adulthood are potential mechanisms of impact. Our findings add to our understanding of the relevance of early-life insults for old-age health and mortality.

Keywords: Mortality; Longevity; Pesticide; Agrichemicals; Fetal development; Early-life exposures; Historical data (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I18 J18 Q15 Q18 Q53 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jeeman:v:123:y:2024:i:c:s0095069623001213

DOI: 10.1016/j.jeem.2023.102903

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