Can Pollution Cause Poverty? The Effects of Pollution on Educational, Health and Economic Outcomes

Abstract

Although pollution is widespread, there is little evidence about how it might harm children’s long-run outcomes. Using the detailed, geocoded data that follows national representative cohorts of children born to the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth respondents over time, I compare siblings who were gestating before versus after a Toxic Release Inventory site opened or closed within one mile of their home. I find that children who were exposed prenatally to industrial pollution have lower wages, are more likely to be in poverty as adults, have fewer years of completed education, and are less likely to graduate high school.