IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/glodps/1618.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Blowin' in the Wind: Smog and Suicidal Ideation among School-Age Children

Author

Listed:
  • Zhang, Xin
  • Chen, Xi
  • Sun, Hong
  • Yang, Yuanjian

Abstract

This paper attempts to provide one of the first population-based causal estimates of the effect of air pollution on suicidal ideation-a key precursor to suicide attempt and completion-among school-age children. We use daily variations in the local wind direction as instruments to address endogeneity in pollution exposure. Matching a unique risk behavior survey of 55,000 students from 273 schools with comprehensive data on air pollutants and weather conditions according to the exact date and location of schooling, our findings indicate that a 1% decline in daily PM2.5 is associated with a 0.36% reduction in the probability of suicidal ideation. Moreover, the dose-response relationship reveals that the marginal effects increase significantly and non-linearly with elevated concentration of PM2.5. The effect is particularly pronounced among younger, male, students from low-educated families, and students with lower grades.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhang, Xin & Chen, Xi & Sun, Hong & Yang, Yuanjian, 2025. "Blowin' in the Wind: Smog and Suicidal Ideation among School-Age Children," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1618, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:glodps:1618
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/319539/1/GLO-DP-1618.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Michael Greenstone & Rema Hanna, 2014. "Environmental Regulations, Air and Water Pollution, and Infant Mortality in India," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(10), pages 3038-3072, October.
    2. 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.
    3. Burkhardt, Jesse & Bayham, Jude & Wilson, Ander & Carter, Ellison & Berman, Jesse D. & O'Dell, Katelyn & Ford, Bonne & Fischer, Emily V. & Pierce, Jeffrey R., 2019. "The effect of pollution on crime: Evidence from data on particulate matter and ozone," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    4. Avraham Ebenstein & Victor Lavy & Sefi Roth, 2016. "The Long-Run Economic Consequences of High-Stakes Examinations: Evidence from Transitory Variation in Pollution," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 8(4), pages 36-65, October.
    5. Levinson, Arik, 2012. "Valuing public goods using happiness data: The case of air quality," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(9-10), pages 869-880.
    6. Tom Y. Chang & Joshua Graff Zivin & Tal Gross & Matthew Neidell, 2019. "The Effect of Pollution on Worker Productivity: Evidence from Call Center Workers in China," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 11(1), pages 151-172, January.
    7. Janet Currie & Joshua Graff Zivin & Jamie Mullins & Matthew Neidell, 2014. "What Do We Know About Short- and Long-Term Effects of Early-Life Exposure to Pollution?," Annual Review of Resource Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 6(1), pages 217-247, October.
    8. Christopher R. Knittel & Douglas L. Miller & Nicholas J. Sanders, 2016. "Caution, Drivers! Children Present: Traffic, Pollution, and Infant Health," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 98(2), pages 350-366, May.
    9. Prashant Bharadwaj & Matthew Gibson & Joshua Graff Zivin & Christopher Neilson, 2017. "Gray Matters: Fetal Pollution Exposure and Human Capital Formation," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 4(2), pages 505-542.
    10. Chang, Qingsong & Chan, Chee Hon & Yip, Paul S.F., 2017. "A meta-analytic review on social relationships and suicidal ideation among older adults," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 191(C), pages 65-76.
    11. Harel-Fisch, Yossi & Abdeen, Ziad & Walsh, Sophie D. & Radwan, Qasrowi & Fogel-Grinvald, Haya, 2012. "Multiple risk behaviors and suicidal ideation and behavior among Israeli and Palestinian adolescents," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(1), pages 98-108.
    12. 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.
    13. Mullins, Jamie T. & White, Corey, 2019. "Temperature and mental health: Evidence from the spectrum of mental health outcomes," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    14. 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.
    15. Tom Chang & Joshua S. Graff Zivin & Tal Gross & Matthew J. Neidell, 2019. "Corrigendum: Particulate Pollution and the Productivity of Pear Packers," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 11(3), pages 454-456, August.
    16. Sylvia Kämpfer & Michael Mutz, 2013. "On the Sunny Side of Life: Sunshine Effects on Life Satisfaction," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 110(2), pages 579-595, January.
    17. Peng, Sihui & Yang, Xiaozhao Yousef & Rockett, Ian R.H., 2019. "A typology of social capital and its mixed blessing for suicidal ideation: A multilevel study of college students," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 243(C).
    18. Persico, Claudia L. & Marcotte, Dave E., 2022. "Air Quality and Suicide," IZA Discussion Papers 15087, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    19. Enrico Moretti & Matthew Neidell, 2011. "Pollution, Health, and Avoidance Behavior: Evidence from the Ports of Los Angeles," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 46(1), pages 154-175.
    20. Mengyao Li & Susana Ferreira & Travis A. Smith & Xin Zhang, 2021. "Air pollution and noncognitive traits among Chinese adolescents," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(2), pages 478-488, February.
    21. Zhang, Xin & Zhang, Xiaobo & Chen, Xi, 2017. "Happiness in the air: How does a dirty sky affect mental health and subjective well-being?," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 81-94.
    22. Ruhm, Christopher J., 2015. "Recessions, healthy no more?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 17-28.
    23. Marshall Burke & Felipe González & Patrick Baylis & Sam Heft-Neal & Ceren Baysan & Sanjay Basu & Solomon Hsiang, 2018. "Higher temperatures increase suicide rates in the United States and Mexico," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 8(8), pages 723-729, August.
    24. Reyes Jessica Wolpaw, 2007. "Environmental Policy as Social Policy? The Impact of Childhood Lead Exposure on Crime," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 7(1), pages 1-43, October.
    25. Fan, Maoyong & He, Guojun & Zhou, Maigeng, 2020. "The winter choke: Coal-Fired heating, air pollution, and mortality in China," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    26. Liu, Haoming & Salvo, Alberto, 2018. "Severe air pollution and child absences when schools and parents respond," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 300-330.
    27. 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).
    28. Bayer, Patrick & Keohane, Nathaniel & Timmins, Christopher, 2009. "Migration and hedonic valuation: The case of air quality," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 58(1), pages 1-14, July.
    29. Ghanem, Dalia & Zhang, Junjie, 2014. "‘Effortless Perfection:’ Do Chinese cities manipulate air pollution data?," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 68(2), pages 203-225.
    30. Chen, Siyu & Guo, Chongshan & Huang, Xinfei, 2018. "Air Pollution, Student Health, and School Absences: Evidence from China," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 465-497.
    31. Chew, Soo Hong & Huang, Wei & Li, Xun, 2021. "Does haze cloud decision making? A natural laboratory experiment," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 182(C), pages 132-161.
    32. Mark Duggan & Randi Hjalmarsson & Brian A. Jacob, 2011. "The Short-Term and Localized Effect of Gun Shows: Evidence from California and Texas," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 93(3), pages 786-799, August.
    33. Borgschulte, Mark & Corredor-Waldron, Adriana & Marshall, Guillermo, 2018. "A path out: Prescription drug abuse, treatment, and suicide," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 169-184.
    34. Austin M. Williams & Daniel J. Phaneuf, 2019. "The Morbidity Costs of Air Pollution: Evidence from Spending on Chronic Respiratory Conditions," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 74(2), pages 571-603, October.
    35. Wolfram Schlenker & W. Reed Walker, 2016. "Airports, Air Pollution, and Contemporaneous Health," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 83(2), pages 768-809.
    36. Jessica Wolpaw Reyes, 2007. "Environmental Policy as Social Policy? The Impact of Childhood Lead Exposure on Crime," NBER Working Papers 13097, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    37. Peng Zhang & Tamma Carleton & Liguo Lin & Maigeng Zhou, 2024. "Estimating the role of air quality improvements in the decline of suicide rates in China," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 7(3), pages 260-269, March.
    38. Evan Herrnstadt & Anthony Heyes & Erich Muehlegger & Soodeh Saberian, 2021. "Air Pollution and Criminal Activity: Microgeographic Evidence from Chicago," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 13(4), pages 70-100, October.
    39. Smith, Melissa E. & Sharpe, Tanya L. & Richardson, Joseph & Pahwa, Rohini & Smith, Dominique & DeVylder, Jordan, 2020. "The impact of exposure to gun violence fatality on mental health outcomes in four urban U.S. settings," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 246(C).
    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. Shihe Fu & V. Brian Viard, 2022. "A mayors perspective on tackling air pollution," Chapters, in: Charles K.Y. Leung (ed.), Handbook of Real Estate and Macroeconomics, chapter 16, pages 413-437, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    2. Yao, Yao & Li, Xue & Smyth, Russell & Zhang, Lin, 2022. "Air pollution and political trust in local government: Evidence from China," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    3. Juliana Carneiro & Matthew A. Cole & Eric Strobl, 2024. "Foetal Exposure to Air Pollution and Students' Cognitive Performance: Evidence from Agricultural Fires in Brazil," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 86(1), pages 156-186, February.
    4. Xin Zhang & Xun Zhang & Yuehua Liu & Xintong Zhao & Xi Chen, 2023. "The morbidity costs of air pollution through the Lens of Health Spending in China," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 36(3), pages 1269-1292, July.
    5. 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.
    6. 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.
    7. 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).
    8. Zhenyu Yao & Wei Zhang & Xinde Ji & Weizhe Weng, 2023. "Short-Term Exposure to Air Pollution and Cognitive Performance: New Evidence from China’s College English Test," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 85(1), pages 211-237, May.
    9. 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.
    10. Sandra Aguilar-Gomez & Nathaly M. Rivera, 2024. "Air Pollution in the Global South: An Overview of Its Sources and Impacts," Working Papers wp561, University of Chile, Department of Economics.
    11. 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.
    12. Alena V. Pivavarava & Alexander W. Cats, 2025. "Application of machine learning to the long-period analysis of multiplex internationalization strategies," MUNI ECON Working Papers 2025-05, Masaryk University.
    13. Bellani, Luna & Ceolotto, Stefano & Elsner, Benjamin & Pestel, Nico, 2021. "Air Pollution Affects Decision-Making: Evidence from the Ballot Box," IZA Discussion Papers 14718, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. Lohmann, Paul M. & Gsottbauer, Elisabeth & You, Jing & Kontoleon, Andreas, 2023. "Air pollution and anti-social behaviour: Evidence from a randomised lab-in-the-field experiment," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 320(C).
    15. Guo, Liwen & Cheng, Zhiming & Tani, Massimiliano & Cook, Sarah & Zhao, Jiaqi & Chen, Xi, 2025. "Air pollution and entrepreneurship," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    16. Kong, Dongmin & Liang, Junwei & Liu, Chenhao, 2022. "Invisible enemy: The health impact of ozone," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    17. Liu, Ziheng, 2025. "CO2-driven crop comparative advantage and planting decision: Evidence from US cropland," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    18. Xinming Du, 2023. "Symptom or Culprit? Social Media, Air Pollution, and Violence," CESifo Working Paper Series 10296, CESifo.
    19. Michelle Marcus, 2021. "Pollution at schools and children's aerobic capacity," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(12), pages 3016-3031, December.
    20. Chen, Yulong, 2024. "Early exposure to air pollution and cognitive development later in life: Evidence from China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being
    • Q51 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Valuation of Environmental Effects
    • Q53 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Air Pollution; Water Pollution; Noise; Hazardous Waste; Solid Waste; Recycling

    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:zbw:glodps:1618. 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: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/glabode.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.