Should They Stay or Should They Go? Environmental Quality, Mobility, and Children's Opportunities

即使是低水平的污染，也会对儿童的健康和发展产生严重的负面影响。更重要的是，低收入和少数民族更容易受到污染的影响，这表明它可能会导致持续的不平等。了解污染在塑造邻里构成和增长方面的作用，将是在英国政府升级议程的背景下设计刺激绿色和包容性增长的政策的关键。我的研究将利用一个独特的纵向数据集，跟踪英国学生大约20年，研究短期和累积污染暴露对学生人力资本和行为的影响，包括长期的大学和劳动力市场结果，以及污染变化对家庭住宅流动性的影响。我的短期和长期的结果的研究都留在和搬迁将描绘环境质量的儿童暴露于污染在不同的发展阶段的整体影响的全貌，从而推进奖学金的污染的后果和地方的重要性。我将汇编一个独特的学生水平的数据集，跟踪儿童居住的地方和他们相关的污染暴露，短期和长期的教育成果，以及贫困，住房销售和租金指数在邻里一级，通过汇编专有和公共，但限制访问，数据为英格兰。首先，我将使用与自我报告的排放数据、颗粒物的网格化卫星估计和空气质量监测器相关联的匿名商业数据，来衡量企业开业或关闭时当地空气污染的变化。其次，我将通过匿名学生数据来衡量儿童的人力资本成果，这些数据包括居住历史、人口统计特征、表现和行为，以及大学和劳动力市场的成果。我将在空间上将环境数据与学生的学校和家庭位置联系起来，以确定经历环境质量变化的学生。进一步将社会经济数据、房屋销售和租金价格以及学校质量联系起来，将使我能够衡量污染引起的迁移是否会导致学生进入不同社会经济地位的社区和不同质量的学校，从而可能减轻或加强对现有不平等的影响。我将利用这些数据来跟踪学生在时间和空间上使用面板数据的方法，并评估学生的表现如何改变开放和关闭有毒植物。此外，我还将探讨年龄和环境暴露时间对学生学习成绩的影响，以及以学校财政状况和学生学习成绩为代表的选择更好的学校是否能减轻污染带来的损害。具体而言，我的目标是回答以下问题：1）环境质量的差异对学生的学习成绩、非认知成果和居住流动性有何影响？2)居住流动性的差异是否减轻或加强了现有的不平等，学校资源发挥了什么作用？3)长期污染暴露的影响是什么，政策应如何最佳应对？这项工作将提供第一个证据，考虑到基于地点的环境政策对儿童的生活轨迹和不平等的影响。事实上，诸如“提高议程”中所列的环境政策为改善往往受到环境质量不成比例影响的处境不利家庭的条件和机会提供了机会。我的研究结果将提供有关环境政策（可能是无意的）后果的关键数据。有了这些信息，地方和中央政府就可以制定政策，促进环境变化和经济机会，并在决策过程中考虑环境政策的健康和人力资本共同效益。

Even low levels of pollution have overarching negative consequences for children's health and development. What's more, low-income and minority people are more likely to be exposed to, and affected by, pollution, suggesting that it might contribute to persistent inequality. Understanding the role of pollution in shaping neighbourhood composition and growth will be key to design policies that stimulate green and inclusive growth in the context of the UK government's levelling up agenda. My study will leverage a unique longitudinal data set following English students for circa twenty years to study the effects of short-term and cumulative pollution exposure on students' human capital and behaviour, including long-term college and labour market outcomes, as well as on families' residential mobility driven by changes in pollution. My study of short- and long-term outcomes of both stayers and movers will paint a full picture of the total effects of environmental quality on children exposed to pollution at different developmental stages, thus advancing the scholarship on the consequences of pollution and the importance of place.I will compile a unique student-level data set that tracks where children lived and their associated pollution exposure, short- and long-term educational outcomes, as well as deprivation, housing sales and rental indices at the neighbourhood level, by compiling both proprietary and public, but restricted-access, data for England. First, I will use anonymised business data custom-linked to self-reported emission data, gridded satellite estimates of particulate matter, and air quality monitors to measure how local air pollution changes when firms open or close. Second, I will measure children's human capital outcomes through to anonymised pupil data including residential histories, demographic characteristics, performance and behaviour, as well as college and labour market outcomes. I will spatially link the environmental data to students' school and home location to identify pupils who experience changes in environmental quality. Further linking socioeconomic data, house sales and rental prices, and school quality will allow me to measure whether pollution-induced moves lead pupils to neighbourhoods of different socioeconomic status and schools of different quality, potentially mitigating or reinforcing effects on existing inequities. I will leverage these data to follow students over time and space using panel data methods and assess how students' performance changes following openings and closings of toxic plants. In addition, I will investigate how the age and duration of environmental exposure affect students outcomes, and whether moving to better schools, as proxied by school finances and students' performance, mitigates pollution damages.Specifically, I aim to answer the following questions:1) What are the effects of differences in environmental quality on pupils' academic performance, non-cognitive outcomes, and residential mobility?2) Do differences in residential mobility mitigate or reinforce existing inequalities, and what role do school resources play?3) What are the effects of long-term pollution exposure, and how should policy optimally respond?This work will provide the first evidence considering the effects of place-based environmental policies on children's life trajectories and inequality. Indeed, environmental policies like those included in the levelling up agenda provide a chance to improve the condition and opportunities of disadvantaged families who tend to be disproportionately affected by environmental quality. My results will provide key data on the (possibly unintended) consequences of environmental policies. With this information at hand, local and central governments can design policies to foster both environmental change and economic opportunities, and can incorporate health and human capital co-benefits of environmental policy in their decision process.