IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cwl/cwldpp/2486.html

Clean Rides, Healthy Lives: The Impact of Electric Vehicle Adoption on Air Quality and Infant Health

Author

Listed:
  • Cavit Baran

    (Sabancõ University)

  • Janet Currie

    (Yale University and NBER)

  • Bahadõr Dursun

    (Newcastle University and IZA)

  • Erdal Tekin

    (American University, IZA, and NBER)

Abstract

This paper provides the first nationwide U.S. evidence on the effects of electric vehicle (EV) adoption on air quality and child health. Using county-level data from 2010-2021, we link EV registrations to air pollution, birth outcomes, and emergency department visits. Endogenous adoption is addressed using two-way fixed effects and an instrumental variables strategy exploiting the rollout of federally designated Alternative Fuel Corridors. Greater EV adoption significantly lowers nitrogen dioxide and improves infant and child health, reducing very low birth weight, prematurity, and asthma-related emergency visits. The largest health gains occur in high-pollution areas and exceed $1.2-$4.0 billion annually.

Suggested Citation

  • Cavit Baran & Janet Currie & Bahadõr Dursun & Erdal Tekin, 2026. "Clean Rides, Healthy Lives: The Impact of Electric Vehicle Adoption on Air Quality and Infant Health," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 2486, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University.
    • Handle: RePEc:cwl:cwldpp:2486
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://cowles.yale.edu/sites/default/files/2026-01/d2486.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tatyana Deryugina & Garth Heutel & Nolan H. Miller & David Molitor & Julian Reif, 2019. "The Mortality and Medical Costs of Air Pollution: Evidence from Changes in Wind Direction," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(12), pages 4178-4219, December.
    2. Todd Elder & David Figlio & Scott Imberman & Claudia Persico, 2020. "The Role of Neonatal Health in the Incidence of Childhood Disability," American Journal of Health Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 6(2), pages 216-250.
    3. Fiona Burlig & James Bushnell & David Rapson & Catherine Wolfram, 2021. "Low Energy: Estimating Electric Vehicle Electricity Use," AEA Papers and Proceedings, American Economic Association, vol. 111, pages 430-435, May.
    4. Janet Currie, 2011. "Inequality at Birth: Some Causes and Consequences," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(3), pages 1-22, May.
    5. Janet Currie & Reed Walker, 2011. "Traffic Congestion and Infant Health: Evidence from E-ZPass," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 3(1), pages 65-90, January.
    6. Currie, Janet & Neidell, Matthew & Schmieder, Johannes F., 2009. "Air pollution and infant health: Lessons from New Jersey," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 688-703, May.
    7. Jackson Dorsey & Ashley Langer & Shaun McRae, 2025. "Fueling Alternatives: Gas Station Choice and the Implications for Electric Charging," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 17(1), pages 362-400, February.
    8. David Figlio & Jonathan Guryan & Krzysztof Karbownik & Jeffrey Roth, 2014. "The Effects of Poor Neonatal Health on Children's Cognitive Development," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(12), pages 3921-3955, December.
    9. Diane Alexander & Hannes Schwandt, 2022. "The Impact of Car Pollution on Infant and Child Health: Evidence from Emissions Cheating," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 89(6), pages 2872-2910.
    10. Sierzchula, William & Bakker, Sjoerd & Maat, Kees & van Wee, Bert, 2014. "The influence of financial incentives and other socio-economic factors on electric vehicle adoption," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 183-194.
    11. Stephen P. Holland & Erin T. Mansur & Andrew J. Yates, 2021. "The Electric Vehicle Transition and the Economics of Banning Gasoline Vehicles," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 13(3), pages 316-344, August.
    12. Janet Currie & Michael Mueller-Smith & Maya Rossin-Slater, 2022. "Violence While in Utero: The Impact of Assaults during Pregnancy on Birth Outcomes," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 104(3), pages 525-540, May.
    13. Douglas Almond & Kenneth Y. Chay & David S. Lee, 2005. "The Costs of Low Birth Weight," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 120(3), pages 1031-1083.
    14. Marcus, Michelle, 2017. "On the road to recovery: Gasoline content regulations and child health," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 98-123.
    15. Bahadir Dursun & Ozkan Eren & My Nguyen, 2024. "Curriculum Reforms and Infant Health," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 106(2), pages 394-408, March.
    16. Arden Pope III, C., 1989. "Respiratory disease associated with community air pollution and a steel mill, Utah Valley," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 79(5), pages 623-628.
    17. Stephen P. Holland & Erin T. Mansur & Nicholas Z. Muller & Andrew J. Yates, 2020. "Decompositions and Policy Consequences of an Extraordinary Decline in Air Pollution from Electricity Generation," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 12(4), pages 244-274, November.
    18. Aline Bütikofer & Katrine V. Løken & Kjell G. Salvanes, 2019. "Infant Health Care and Long-Term Outcomes," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 101(2), pages 341-354, May.
    19. repec:plo:pone00:0176131 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. 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.
    21. Lucas W. Davis & Jing Li & Katalin Springel, 2025. "Political Ideology and U.S. Electric Vehicle Adoption," NBER Working Papers 33591, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Janet Currie & Bahadir Dursun & Michael Hatch & Erdal Tekin, 2023. "The Hidden Cost of Firearm Violence on Infants in Utero," NBER Working Papers 31774, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Alessandro Palma & Inna Petrunyk & Daniela Vuri, 2022. "Prenatal air pollution exposure and neonatal health," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(5), pages 729-759, May.
    3. Abdel-Hamid Bello & Maripier Isabelle & Guy Lacroix, 2025. "Prenatal Exposure to PM2.5 and Infant health : Evidence from Quebec," CIRANO Working Papers 2025s-09, CIRANO.
    4. Joshua Graff Zivin & Matthew Neidell, 2013. "Environment, Health, and Human Capital," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 51(3), pages 689-730, September.
    5. Diane Alexander & Hannes Schwandt, 2022. "The Impact of Car Pollution on Infant and Child Health: Evidence from Emissions Cheating," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 89(6), pages 2872-2910.
    6. Kenneth Gillingham & Pei Huang, 2021. "Racial Disparities in the Health Effects from Air Pollution: Evidence from Ports," NBER Working Papers 29108, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Ju, Heng & Tang, Yao & Zhang, Meilan, 2024. "Air Pollution's Grip: Drug Cost and Its Heterogeneity in China," MPRA Paper 121154, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Guidetti, Bruna & Pereda, Paula & Severnini, Edson, 2020. "Health Shocks under Hospital Capacity Constraint: Evidence from Air Pollution in Sao Paulo, Brazil," IZA Discussion Papers 13211, IZA Network @ LISER.
    9. Hannah Klauber & Felix Holub & Nicolas Koch & Nico Pestel & Nolan Ritter & Alexander Rohlf, 2024. "Killing Prescriptions Softly: Low Emission Zones and Child Health from Birth to School," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 16(2), pages 220-248, May.
    10. Hill, Elaine L. & Ma, Lala, 2022. "Drinking water, fracking, and infant health," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    11. Martina Pons, 2022. "The impact of air pollution on birthweight: evidence from grouped quantile regression," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 62(1), pages 279-296, January.
    12. 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.
    13. Margaryan, Shushanik, 2021. "Low emission zones and population health," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    14. 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).
    15. Hill, Elaine L., 2018. "Shale gas development and infant health: Evidence from Pennsylvania," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 134-150.
    16. Bruna Morais Guidetti & Paula Carvalho Pereda, Edson Roberto Severnini, 2021. "Health Shocks under Hospital Capacity Constraints: Evidence from Air Pollution in Sao Paulo, Brazil," Working Papers, Department of Economics 2021_05, University of São Paulo (FEA-USP).
    17. Jin, Bohan & Li, Zheng, 2024. "Air pollution, healthcare use, and inequality: Evidence from China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    18. Gehrsitz, Markus, 2017. "The effect of low emission zones on air pollution and infant health," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 121-144.
    19. Alessandro Palma & Inna Petrunyk & Daniela Vuri, 2019. "Air Pollution During Pregnancy and Birth Outcomes in Italy," CEIS Research Paper 464, Tor Vergata University, CEIS, revised 03 Sep 2019.
    20. Tanaka, Shinsuke, 2024. "Blowin’ in the wind: Long-term downwind exposure to air pollution from power plants and adult mortality," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I14 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health and Inequality
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • Q53 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Air Pollution; Water Pollution; Noise; Hazardous Waste; Solid Waste; Recycling
    • R38 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Real Estate Markets, Spatial Production Analysis, and Firm Location - - - Government Policy

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:cwl:cwldpp:2486. 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: Brittany Ladd (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cowleus.html .

    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.