The grandkids aren't alright: the intergenerational effects of prenatal pollution exposure

Jonathan Colmer () and John Voorheis

CEP Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Performance, LSE

Abstract: Using newly linked survey and administrative data, providing more than 150 million parent-child links, we show that regulation-induced improvements in early life air quality have intergenerational effects on human capital accumulation in the United States - the second-generation is more likely to attend college. Supporting evidence indicates that intergenerational transmission arises from greater parental resources and investments, rather than heritable channels. Our findings suggest that within-generation estimates of marginal damages substantially underestimate the total welfare effects of improving environmental quality.

Keywords: air pollution; environmental regulation; social mobility; human capital (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H23 J00 Q53 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-12-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene and nep-env
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Related works:
Working Paper: The Grandkids Aren't Alright: The Intergenerational Effects of Prenatal Pollution Exposure (2020)
Working Paper: The grandkids aren't alright: the intergenerational effects of prenatal pollution exposure (2020)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1733

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