The Human Capital Cost of Air Pollution

This study is being led by Dr Lucie Gadenne (Institute for Fiscal Studies). The study started in 2025 and aims to finish in 2030.

‍This project was reviewed and approved through ECHILD's data access process. Learn how ECHILD data is kept safe.‍

  • We want to find out what is the effect of air pollution on children’s human capital in England.

  • This study can help inform policies aiming to reduce the negative effects of air pollution on children’s health, education and well-being.

  • We compare the health and educational outcomes of children residing in near coal power plants to those living in areas with a closure before and after the series of closures in 2008.

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  • Why does this matter?

    Air pollution damages many aspects of health, particularly for the elderly and young children. Moreover, more attention is being paid to how air pollution can coincide with and exacerbate existing inequalities, such as income and ethnic inequalities.

    What do we want to find out?

    What is the impact of a coal power plant closure on children’s health and education outcomes.

    What we will do?

    We use health and education data from ECHILD to compare the outcomes of children living near a coal power plant to those living in areas with a power plant closure around 2008, when a series of plant closures took place.

  • Background and aims

    This project will study the effects of air pollution on children’s human capital in England. On-going work by the research team has found a clear negative effect of coal power plant closures since 2008 on local air pollution (PM2.5).  The results of the new analysis looking at health and education outcomes directly will help inform policies that aim to limit the negative effects of air pollution on children’s health, education and well-being.

    Methods and analysis

    Using ECHILD and a difference-in-differences design, we will estimate how this decrease in air pollution affected children’s health and education outcomes in the short and medium term. We compare the health and education outcomes of children living near a power plant (control) to those living near a power plant that closed (treated), before and after the mass closures in 2008.

    ECHILD data used

    • HES: outpatients, A&E/emergency care, admitted patient care, critical care and mental health datasets + mother-baby link

    • NPD: school census, Early Years Foundation Stage Profile, Key Stages 1 to 5 attainment, absences and exclusions