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 examines the long-term educational impacts of early-life exposure to a major air-pollution regulation: China's 1998 Two Control Zones policy. We compare educational outcomes for cohorts born before versus after the policy's introduction in designated counties, relative to the corresponding before-after change in non-designated counties. We track outcomes at two key transitions: high-school attendance and academic-track placement around age 15, and National College Entrance Examination (NCEE) participation and scores as well as college enrollment around age 18. We find little evidence that TCZ exposure in the year of birth translated into long-run educational gains. For urban children, 95% confidence intervals rule out increases larger than about 3 percentage points in high-school attendance, 4 percentage points in NCEE participation, and 5 percentage points in college attendance. We find similarly limited impacts across 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
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cna, nep-ene, nep-env, nep-hea, nep-lma, nep-sea and nep-ure
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:irn:wpaper:25-08

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