Early-life exposure to air pollution and human capital accumulation: evidence from the 1997 Indonesia forest fires
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PhD Seminar (Econ)
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This study examines the long-term impact of early-life exposure to the air pollution resulted from the 1997 forest fires in Indonesia on human capital accumulation. It finds that children who were exposed to the smoke during their first 3 years of life went on to experience a shortfall in accumulating years of schooling by around 0.23 years. However, there is limited evidence on health effects and other schooling dimension. The results also suggest that following the wildfires, average households in the hotspot provinces changed their preferences towards fewer children, adopting birth control, and increased expenditure allocation for health and education. These may contribute to moderating the true long-term effects of the smoke.
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