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The Impact of Car Pollution on Infant and Child Health: Evidence from Emissions Cheating

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  • Alexander, Diane

    (Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania)

  • Schwandt, Hannes

    (Northwestern University)

Abstract

Car exhaust is a major source of air pollution, but little is known about its impacts on population health. We exploit the dispersion of emissions-cheating diesel cars - which secretly polluted up to 150 times as much as gasoline cars - across the United States from 2008-2015 as a natural experiment to measure the health impact of car pollution. Using the universe of vehicle registrations, we demonstrate that a 10 percent cheating-induced increase in car exhaust increases rates of low birth weight and acute asthma attacks among children by 1.9 and 8.0 percent, respectively. These health impacts occur at all pollution levels and across the entire socioeconomic spectrum.

Suggested Citation

  • Alexander, Diane & Schwandt, Hannes, 2019. "The Impact of Car Pollution on Infant and Child Health: Evidence from Emissions Cheating," IZA Discussion Papers 12427, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp12427
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    4. Hill, Elaine L. & Ma, Lala, 2022. "Drinking water, fracking, and infant health," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
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    13. Nolan, Anne, 2023. "The healthcare costs of poor air quality in Ireland: An analysis of hospital admissions," Papers WP769, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
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    18. 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.
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    21. 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.
    22. Hasan, Iftekhar & Noth, Felix & Tonzer, Lena, 2023. "Cultural norms and corporate fraud: Evidence from the Volkswagen scandal," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    23. Aydin, Eren & Gehrsitz, Markus & Traxler, Christian, 2024. "Greener Fleet, Cleaner Air: How Low Emission Zones Reduce Pollution," IZA Discussion Papers 17144, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    24. Lucas Bretschger & Karen Pittel, 2019. "Twenty Key Questions in Environmental and Resource Economics," CER-ETH Economics working paper series 19/328, CER-ETH - Center of Economic Research (CER-ETH) at ETH Zurich.
    25. Beshir, H.A.; & Fichera, E.;, 2022. "“And Breathe Normally†: The Low Emission Zone impacts on health and well-being in England," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 22/09, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    health; emissions-cheating; car pollution;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General
    • I14 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health and Inequality
    • K32 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law - - - Energy, Environmental, Health, and Safety Law
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth

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