The Unintended Impacts of Agricultural Fires: Human Capital in China

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

No 26205, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

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 detected by high-resolution satellites in China during 2005 to 2011, this paper investigates the impacts of fires on cognitive performance. To address the endogeneity of agricultural fires, we differentiate upwind fires from downwind fires. 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 point), and further decreases the probability of getting into first-tier universities by 0.51 percent of a standard deviation.

JEL-codes: I20 I30 J20 O53 Q10 Q53 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-cna and nep-env
Note: DEV EEE EH
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Published as Joshua Graff Zivin & Tong Liu & Yingquan Song & Qu Tang & Peng Zhang, 2020. "The unintended impacts of agricultural fires: Human capital in China," Journal of Development Economics, .

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Journal Article: The unintended impacts of agricultural fires: Human capital in China (2020)
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