IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iek/wpaper/1201.html

Does Air Pollution Matter for Low Birth Weight?

Author

Listed:
  • Seonyeong Cho
  • Choongki Lee
  • Beomsoo Kim

    (Department of Economics, Korea University, Seoul, Republic of Korea)

Abstract

There is growing concern that air pollution may impact the health of newborns. This study examines this issue by considering overtime variation generated by exogenous changes in the pollution level in Korea in early 2000, when some part of Korea experienced huge drop in air pollution. We matched the census of all births from 1998 to 2008 and air pollution data in mother¡¯s residence county level. For air pollutants, we considered carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, and ozone levels. The mother¡¯s exposure to one ozone level above 0.12 ppm per hour during the first trimester increased the probability of low birth weight by 0.4 percentage point (0.08% of the sample mean). On the other hand, the mother¡¯s exposure to carbon monoxide or sulfur dioxide during the third trimester led to a significant but modest increase in the probability of low birth weight. The results indicate that the effects of an air pollutant on the probability of low birth weight vary according to wh en the mother is exposed to the pollutant during the pregnancy.

Suggested Citation

  • Seonyeong Cho & Choongki Lee & Beomsoo Kim, 2012. "Does Air Pollution Matter for Low Birth Weight?," Discussion Paper Series 1201, Institute of Economic Research, Korea University.
    • Handle: RePEc:iek:wpaper:1201
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://econ.korea.ac.kr/~ri/WorkingPapers/w1201.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Janet Currie, 2011. "Inequality at Birth: Some Causes and Consequences," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(3), pages 1-22, May.
    2. Kenneth Y. Chay & Michael Greenstone, 2003. "The Impact of Air Pollution on Infant Mortality: Evidence from Geographic Variation in Pollution Shocks Induced by a Recession," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 118(3), pages 1121-1167.
    3. Hope Corman & Theodore J. Joyce & Michael Grossman, 1985. "Birth Outcome Production Functions in the U.S," NBER Working Papers 1729, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Kenneth Y. Chay & Michael Greenstone, 2003. "Air Quality, Infant Mortality, and the Clean Air Act of 1970," Working Papers 0406, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research.
    5. Grossman, Michael, 1972. "On the Concept of Health Capital and the Demand for Health," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 80(2), pages 223-255, March-Apr.
    6. Currie, Janet & Cole, Nancy, 1993. "Welfare and Child Health: The Link between AFDC Participation and Birth Weight," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(4), pages 971-985, September.
    7. 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.
    8. Rosenzweig, Mark R. & Wolpin, Kenneth I., 1991. "Inequality at birth : The scope for policy intervention," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 50(1-2), pages 205-228, October.
    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. 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).
    2. Hope Corman & Dhaval Dave & Nancy E. Reichman, 2018. "Evolution of the Infant Health Production Function," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 85(1), pages 6-47, July.
    3. Almond, Douglas & Currie, Janet, 2011. "Human Capital Development before Age Five," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 15, pages 1315-1486, Elsevier.
    4. Sanders, Nicholas J. & Stoecker, Charles, 2015. "Where have all the young men gone? Using sex ratios to measure fetal death rates," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 30-45.
    5. Solomon Hsiang & Paulina Oliva & Reed Walker, 2019. "The Distribution of Environmental Damages," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 13(1), pages 83-103.
    6. Jans, Jenny & Johansson, Per & Nilsson, J. Peter, 2018. "Economic status, air quality, and child health: Evidence from inversion episodes," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 220-232.
    7. Janet Currie & Hannes Schwandt, 2016. "The 9/11 Dust Cloud and Pregnancy Outcomes: A Reconsideration," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 51(4), pages 805-805-831.
    8. 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.
    9. Lalive, Rafael & Schmutzler, Armin & Luechinger, Simon, 2013. "Does Supporting Passenger Railways Reduce Road Traffic Externalities?," CEPR Discussion Papers 9335, Centre for Economic Policy Research.
    10. Janet Currie & Joshua Graff Zivin & Katherine Meckel & Matthew Neidell & Wolfram Schlenker, 2013. "Something in the water: contaminated drinking water and infant health," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 46(3), pages 791-810, August.
    11. Alan Barreca & Karen Clay & Joel Tarr, 2014. "Coal, Smoke, and Death: Bituminous Coal and American Home Heating," NBER Working Papers 19881, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Giovanis, Eleftherios & Ozdamar, Oznur, 2014. "The effects of Air Pollution on Health Status in Great Britain," MPRA Paper 59988, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Boyce, James K. & Zwickl, Klara & Ash, Michael, 2016. "Measuring environmental inequality," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 114-123.
    14. Bermudez, Bladimir Carrillo & Santos Branco, Danyelle Karine & Trujillo, Juan Carlos & de Lima, Joao Eustaquio, 2015. "Deforestation and Infant Health: Evidence from an Environmental Conservation Policy in Brazil," 2015 Conference, August 9-14, 2015, Milan, Italy 229064, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    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. Nahid Tavassoli & Hamid Noghanibehambari & Farzaneh Noghani & Mostafa Toranji, 2021. "Upswing in Industrial Activity and Infant Mortality during Late 19th Century US," Papers 2101.02590, arXiv.org, revised Jan 2021.
    17. Henderson, John & Janke, Katharina & Propper, Carol, 2007. "Are current levels of air pollution in England too high?: the impact of pollution on population mortality," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 6205, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    18. Rema Hanna & Esther Duflo & Michael Greenstone, 2016. "Up in Smoke: The Influence of Household Behavior on the Long-Run Impact of Improved Cooking Stoves," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 8(1), pages 80-114, February.
    19. 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.
    20. Rivera, Nathaly M. & Ruiz-Tagle, J. Cristobal & Spiller, Elisheba, 2024. "The health benefits of solar power generation: Evidence from Chile," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    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:iek:wpaper:1201. 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: Kim, Jisoo (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ierkukr.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.