Air pollution and education investment
Liwen Guo, Zhiming Cheng, Massimiliano Tani, Sarah Cook
Abstract
Our study examines the impact of air pollution on household investment in children's education. We use panel data from secondary schools in Shandong Province in China and find that a one-unit increase in PM2.5 concentration leads to a decrease in the probability of parental investment in their children's education by 3.9 percentage points. Factors such as educational expectations, financial considerations and personal well-being will mediate this impact. Additionally, our results suggest that education level and living area may moderate the relationship between air pollution and educational investment. These findings imply that air pollution may undermine human capital development due to alterations in parental investment behavior prompted by environmental conditions.