TY - JOUR
T1 - Air pollution and adult cognition
T2 - Evidence from brain training
AU - La Nauze, Andrea
AU - Severnini, Edson
N1 - Funding Information:
Andrea La Nauze is at Deakin University ( [email protected] ). Edson Severnini is at Boston College, Nova School of Business and Economics, National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), and Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) ( [email protected] ). We thank our editor (Daniel Millimet), anonymous reviewers, Karen Clay, Jonathan Colmer, Tatyana Deryugina, Nick Kuminoff, Paulina Oliva, Nick Sanders, seminar participants at the Australian National University, Carnegie Mellon University, Cornell University, Lumos Labs, Inc., and the University of Adelaide, and conference participants at the eighth IZA workshop: Environment, Health and Labor Markets for invaluable comments and suggestions. We gratefully acknowledge financial support from the University of Pittsburgh and the Heinz College at Carnegie Mellon University. Declarations of interest: none.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 The Association of Environmental and Resource Economists. All rights reserved.
PY - 2025/1
Y1 - 2025/1
N2 - We exploit novel data from brain-training games to examine the impacts of air pollution on a comprehensive set of cognitive skills in adults. We find that exposure to particulate matter (PM2.5) impairs adult cognitive function and that these effects are largest for those in prime working age. These results confirm a hypothesized mechanism for the impacts of air pollution on workforce productivity. We also find that the cognitive effects are largest for new tasks and for those with low ability, suggesting that air pollution increases inequality in productivity.
AB - We exploit novel data from brain-training games to examine the impacts of air pollution on a comprehensive set of cognitive skills in adults. We find that exposure to particulate matter (PM2.5) impairs adult cognitive function and that these effects are largest for those in prime working age. These results confirm a hypothesized mechanism for the impacts of air pollution on workforce productivity. We also find that the cognitive effects are largest for new tasks and for those with low ability, suggesting that air pollution increases inequality in productivity.
KW - Air pollution
KW - Cognition
KW - Cognitive skills
KW - Particulate matter
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=105000661104&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1086/730390
DO - 10.1086/730390
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:105000661104
SN - 2333-5955
VL - 12
SP - 221
EP - 255
JO - Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists
JF - Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists
IS - 1
ER -