Caution, Drivers! Children Present: Traffic, Pollution, and Infant Health
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rest_a_00548.pdf
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Author(s)
Miller, Douglas L.
Sanders, Nicholas J.
Knittel, Christopher Roland
Date Issued
May 2016
Journal
Review of Economics and Statistics
Publisher
MIT Press
Citation
Knittel, Christopher R., Douglas L. Miller, and Nicholas J. Sanders. “Caution, Drivers! Children Present: Traffic, Pollution, and Infant Health.” Review of Economics and Statistics 98, no. 2 (May 2016): 350–366. © 2016 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Version
Final published version
Abstract
We investigate the effects of automobile congestion on ambient air pollution and local infant mortality rates using data from California spanning 2002 to 2007. Constructing instrumental variables (IV) using the relationship of traffic, weather conditions, and pollutants, we show that particulate matter, even at modern levels, has large marginal effects on weekly infant mortality rates, especially for premature or low birthweight infants. We also find suggestive evidence of large effects for carbon monoxide, though results are imprecise. Finally, we check estimate sensitivity to nonclassical measurement error in local pollution and show that our IV results are robust to such concerns.
MIT Department
Sloan School of Management
Terms of Use
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1162/REST_A_00548
