Working Paper: NBER ID: w26205
Authors: Joshua S. Graff Zivin; Tong Liu; Yingquan Song; Qu Tang; Peng Zhang
Abstract: The practice of burning agricultural waste is ubiquitous around the world, yet the external human capital costs from those fires have been underexplored. Using data from the National College Entrance Examination (NCEE) and agricultural fires detected by high-resolution satellites in China during 2005 to 2011, this paper investigates the impacts of fires on cognitive performance. To address the endogeneity of agricultural fires, we differentiate upwind fires from downwind fires. We find that a one-standard-deviation increase in the difference between upwind and downwind fires during the exam decreases the total exam score by 1.42 percent of a standard deviation (or 0.6 point), and further decreases the probability of getting into first-tier universities by 0.51 percent of a standard deviation.
Keywords: agricultural fires; human capital; cognitive performance; China; NCEE
JEL Codes: I20; I30; J20; O53; Q10; Q53
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| upwind and downwind agricultural fires (Q54) | pollution exposure (Q53) |
| pollution exposure (Q53) | cognitive performance (D29) |
| pollution exposure (Q53) | probability of admission to first-tier universities (C46) |
| agricultural fires (Q18) | cognitive performance (D29) |
| agricultural fires (Q18) | probability of admission to first-tier universities (C46) |
| agricultural fires (Q18) | pollution exposure (Q53) |