Indoor air quality and academic performance

Tess Stafford

Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 2015, vol. 70, issue C, 34-50

Abstract: I examine the effect of school indoor air quality (IAQ) on academic outcomes. I utilize a quasi-natural experiment, in which IAQ-renovations were completed at virtually every school in a single Texas school district at different points in time, combined with a panel of student-level data to control for many confounding factors and thereby uncover the causal effect of IAQ-renovations on academic outcomes. Results indicate that performance on standardized tests significantly improves while attendance is unresponsive to improvements in IAQ. Rough calculations suggest that IAQ-renovations may be a more cost-effective way to improve standardized test scores than class size reductions.

Keywords: Indoor air pollution; Academic performance; Human capital; School environment; School facilities (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I21 Q53 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (54)

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Working Paper: Indoor Air Quality and Academic Performance (2013)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jeeman:v:70:y:2015:i:c:p:34-50

DOI: 10.1016/j.jeem.2014.11.002

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