Abstract
This paper analyzes the impact of short-term exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) on the cognitive performance of students who were tested on a range of sensitive tests at a large university in Brazil. To examine whether the effect of PM2.5 varies by cognitive domain, we employ tests measuring simple attention, complex attention, arithmetic processing speed, working memory, and fluid reasoning. Exploiting plausibly exogenous variation in fine particulate matter—which easily penetrates indoor settings—across 54 lab sessions over a 3-year period with 464 students, we find evidence suggesting that exposure to high levels of PM2.5 reduces performance on a fluid reasoning test. By contrast, we do not find evidence to support an effect of PM2.5 on the other cognitive tests, although we are underpowered to detect modest effects on these tests.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 443-474 |
| Number of pages | 32 |
| Journal | Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists |
| Volume | 8 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - May 2021 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Arjun S. Bedi and Matthias Rieger are in the International Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam. Marcos Y. Nakaguma is in the São Paulo School of Economics—FGV. Brandon J. Restrepo (corresponding author) is in the US Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service ([email protected]). This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS). We received funding from the Development Economics Group of the ISS. The findings and conclusions in this publication have not been Dataverse data: https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/QJUPHO
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 by The Association of Environmental and Resource Economists. All rights reserved.
Research programs
- ISS-DE
