IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jhecon/v40y2015icp132-140.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Allergy test: Seasonal allergens and performance in school

Author

Listed:
  • Marcotte, Dave E.

Abstract

Seasonal pollen allergies affect approximately 1 in 5 school age children. Clinical research has established that these allergies result in large and consistent decrements in cognitive functioning, problem solving ability and speed, focus and energy. However, compared to air pollution, the impact of pollen and seasonal allergies on achievement in schools has received less attention from economists. Here, I use data on daily pollen counts merged with school district data to assess whether variation in the airborne pollen that induces seasonal allergies is associated with performance on state reading and math assessments. I find substantial and robust effects: A one standard deviation in ambient pollen levels reduces the percent of 3rd graders passing ELA assessments by between 0.2 and 0.3 standard deviations, and math assessments by between about 0.3 and 0.4 standard deviations. I discuss the empirical limitations as well as policy implications of this reduced-form estimate of pollen levels in a community setting.

Suggested Citation

  • Marcotte, Dave E., 2015. "Allergy test: Seasonal allergens and performance in school," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 132-140.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jhecon:v:40:y:2015:i:c:p:132-140
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2015.01.002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016762961500003X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jhealeco.2015.01.002?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Victor Lavy & Avraham Ebenstein & Sefi Roth, 2014. "The Long Run Human Capital and Economic Consequences of High-Stakes Examinations," NBER Working Papers 20647, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Joshua Graff Zivin & Matthew Neidell, 2012. "The Impact of Pollution on Worker Productivity," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(7), pages 3652-3673, December.
    3. Tom Chang & Joshua Graff Zivin & Tal Gross & Matthew Neidell, 2016. "Particulate Pollution and the Productivity of Pear Packers," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 8(3), pages 141-169, August.
    4. Janet Currie & Matthew Neidell, 2005. "Air Pollution and Infant Health: What Can We Learn from California's Recent Experience?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 120(3), pages 1003-1030.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Simon Søbstad Bensnes, 2015. "You sneeze, you lose: The impact of pollen exposure on cognitive performance during high-stakes high school exams," Working Paper Series 16615, Department of Economics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology.
    2. Chen, Fanglin & Zhang, Xin & Chen, Zhongfei, 2023. "Behind climate change: Extreme heat and health cost," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 101-110.
    3. Diego Aboal & Andrés López & Roxana Maurizio & Paz Queraltó, 2021. "Automatización y empleo en Uruguay," Revista Desarrollo y Sociedad, Universidad de los Andes,Facultad de Economía, CEDE, vol. 87(1), March.
    4. Kuroda, Yuta, 2022. "The effect of pollen exposure on consumption behaviors: Evidence from home scanner data," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    5. Bensnes, Simon Søbstad, 2016. "You sneeze, you lose:," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 1-13.
    6. Chalfin, Aaron & Danagoulian, Shooshan & Deza, Monica, 2019. "More sneezing, less crime? Health shocks and the market for offenses," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    7. Marcotte, Dave E., 2017. "Something in the air? Air quality and children's educational outcomes," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 141-151.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Aragón, Fernando M. & Miranda, Juan Jose & Oliva, Paulina, 2017. "Particulate matter and labor supply: The role of caregiving and non-linearities," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 295-309.
    2. Michelle Marcus, 2021. "Pollution at schools and children's aerobic capacity," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(12), pages 3016-3031, December.
    3. Giaccherini, Matilde & Kopinska, Joanna & Palma, Alessandro, 2021. "When particulate matter strikes cities: Social disparities and health costs of air pollution," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    4. Felix Holub & Laura Hospido & Ulrich J. Wagner, 2020. "Urban air pollution and sick leaves: evidence from social security data," Working Papers 2041, Banco de España.
    5. Clara Kögel, 2022. "The impact of air pollution on labour productivity in France," Documents de travail du Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne 22020, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1), Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne.
    6. Gillingham, Kenneth & Huang, Pei, 2021. "Racial disparities in the health effects from air pollution: Evidence from ports," ZEW Discussion Papers 21-058, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    7. Damini Singh & Indrani Gupta & Sagnik Dey, 2022. "Effect of Air Pollution on Cognitive Performance in India," IEG Working Papers 452, Institute of Economic Growth.
    8. Dolores de la Mata & Carlos Felipe Gaviria Garces, 2019. "Exposure to Pollution and Infant Health: Evidence from Colombia," CINCH Working Paper Series 1902, Universitaet Duisburg-Essen, Competent in Competition and Health.
    9. Rivera, Nathaly M., 2017. "The Effectiveness of Temporary Driving Restrictions: Evidence from Air Pollution, Vehicle Flows, and Mass-Transit Users in Santiago," 2017 Annual Meeting, July 30-August 1, Chicago, Illinois 259182, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    10. Lutz Sager, 2016. "Estimating the effect of air pollution on road safety using atmospheric temperature," GRI Working Papers 251, Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment.
    11. Colmer, Jonathan & Lin, Dajun & Liu, Siying & Shimshack, Jay, 2021. "Why are pollution damages lower in developed countries? Insights from high-Income, high-particulate matter Hong Kong," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    12. Boyce, James K. & Zwickl, Klara & Ash, Michael, 2016. "Measuring environmental inequality," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 114-123.
    13. Cong Sun & Siqi Zheng & Jianghao Wang & Matthew E. Kahn, 2019. "Does clean air increase the demand for the consumer city? Evidence from Beijing," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(3), pages 409-434, June.
    14. Graff Zivin, Joshua & Liu, Tong & Song, Yingquan & Tang, Qu & Zhang, Peng, 2020. "The unintended impacts of agricultural fires: Human capital in China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    15. Sun, Yongping & Li, Yingyi & Yu, Tiantian & Zhang, Xinyu & Liu, Lingna & Zhang, Ping, 2021. "Resource extraction, environmental pollution and economic development: Evidence from prefecture-level cities in China," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    16. Rivera, Nathaly M., 2021. "Air quality warnings and temporary driving bans: Evidence from air pollution, car trips, and mass-transit ridership in Santiago," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    17. Younoh Kim & James Manley & Vlad Radoias, 2017. "Medium- and long-term consequences of pollution on labor supply: evidence from Indonesia," IZA Journal of Labor Economics, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 6(1), pages 1-15, December.
    18. Sager, Lutz, 2019. "Estimating the effect of air pollution on road safety using atmospheric temperature inversions," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    19. Anthony Heyes & Nicholas Rivers & Brandon Schaufele, 2016. "Politicians, Pollution and Performance in the Workplace: The Effect of PM on MPs," Working Papers 1616E, University of Ottawa, Department of Economics.
    20. Han, Ahram & Kim, Taejong & Ten, Gi Khan & Wang, Shun, 2023. "Air pollution and gender imbalance in labor supply responses: Evidence from South Korea," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Allergies; Air quality; Achievement; Human capital;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General
    • I20 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jhecon:v:40:y:2015:i:c:p:132-140. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/505560 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.