Every Day is Earth Day: Evidence on the Long-term Impact of Environmental Activism

Daniel Hungerman and Vivek Moorthy

No 26979, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: We explore the importance of activism in the context of Earth Day. We use variation in weather to study the long-term effects of the original Earth Day on attitudes, environmental outcomes, and children's health. Unusually bad weather in a community on April 22, 1970, is associated 10 to 20 years later with weaker support for the environment, particularly among those who were school-aged in 1970. Bad weather on Earth Day is also associated with higher levels of carbon monoxide in the air and greater risk of congenital abnormalities in infants born in the following decades. These results indicate a long-lasting and localized effect of Earth Day, and show that there can be benefits to voluntary activity that would be impossible to identify until years after the volunteering occurs.

JEL-codes: H4 I1 Q10 Z10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-env and nep-hea
Note: CH EEE PE
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Published as Daniel Hungerman & Vivek Moorthy, 2023. "Every Day Is Earth Day: Evidence on the Long-Term Impact of Environmental Activism," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, vol 15(1), pages 230-258.

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Journal Article: Every Day Is Earth Day: Evidence on the Long-Term Impact of Environmental Activism (2023)
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