Air Pollution and Early Childhood Outcomes: Evidence from Georgia Childcare Providers

• In Event: Intersections Between Health and Education

Abstract

Air pollution poses a serious and well-documented threat to children's health and development, yet its effects on early childhood education participation remain underexplored. While prior research has established links between pollution exposure and adverse health outcomes and students' test scores and enrollment among older children, comparatively little attention has been paid to preschool-aged children. This is an important gap, since the early years shape children's development and prepare them for future schooling and long-term success. This paper estimates the causal effect of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) air pollution on childcare attendance using restricted administrative data from Georgia. Georgia offers a relevant setting as the Atlanta metropolitan area ranks among the worst in the nation for annual particle pollution, driven largely by rapid regional growth, and the state as a whole ranks near the bottom for PM2.5 exposure relative to other U.S. states. These environmental conditions raise concerns about whether air pollution acts as an external barrier to participation in early care programs and what policies and facilities can do to reduce these effects. Identifying the causal effect of pollution on attendance is complicated since pollution is not randomly distributed and tends to be higher in areas with fewer resources and more economic disadvantages, and pollutants might have measurement errors. To address this, we apply thermal inversions as an instrumental variable. These weather events naturally trap pollutants near the ground, creating variation in pollution levels that is unrelated to local socioeconomic conditions. Results show that a one-unit increase in the county-week average ambient pollution level decreases weekly childcare attendance by approximately 2 percentage points. We further examine heterogeneous effects across demographic groups to understand which groups are most affected and explore nonlinear effects to assess whether they intensify at higher pollution thresholds. Findings have direct implications for early childhood policy and environmental regulation, highlighting the importance of ensuring children's consistent access to early care services for their development and future growth.

Author

• Mahta Ghafarianghadim, Georgia State University
  Presenting Author