Research >> Pollution

Persistence of solid fuel use in rural north India (published paper)
- Topics: Demography, Gender, Government programs, Pollution
Survey evidence from rural North India showing persistent solid fuel use despite increases in liquefied petroleum gas ownership is presented. Although three-quarters of survey households in these states had LPG, almost all also had a stove that uses solid fuels....Read More..

The association of early-life exposure to ambient PM2.5 and later-childhood height-for-age in India: an observational study
- Topics: Child health, Climate change, Environment, Height, Pollution
This paper by Dean and Sangita (co-authored with Sagnik Dey, Sourangshu Choundary, Noah Scovronick and Joshua Apte) is the first study to directly estimate the impact of early-life exposure to ambient fine particulate matter (PM2.5) on child height-for-age at the...Read More..

The child health impacts of coal: evidence from India’s coal expansion
- Topics: Child health, Environment, Height, Pollution
This paper investigates the child health impacts associated with a large coal plant expansion in India. Using place and cohort fixed effects, exposure to a median-sized coal plant at birth is associated with a height deficit of 0.09-0.10 standard deviations....Read More..

Persistence of solid fuel use despite increases in LPG ownership: New survey evidence from rural north India (working paper)
- Topics: Demography, Gender, Government programs, Pollution
Solid fuel use is an important contributor to air pollution and disease burden in India. We present survey evidence documenting LPG ownership and cooking fuel use in rural north India. LPG ownership has increased rapidly, substantially driven by the Ujjwala...Read More..

Exposure to air pollution has important consequences for public health. In January 2017, we visited Reusa, a block in Uttar Pradesh, to investigate pollution-generating activities and the policies that aim to mitigate them in rural areas. We found many sources of...Read More..

Particulate pollution has important consequences for human health, and is an issue of global concern. Outdoor air pollution has become a cause for alarm in India in particular because recent data suggest that ambient pollution levels in Indian cities are...Read More..

Health externalities of India’s expansion of coal plants: Evidence from a national panel of 40,000 households
- Topics: Child health, Environment, Pollution
Coal power generation is expanding rapidly in India and other developing countries. In addition to consequences for climate change, present-day health externalities may also substantially increase the social cost of coal. Health consequences of air pollution have proven important in...Read More..