Upcoming Presentations

Abstract: We investigate how air pollution impacts outdoor activity avoidance, leveraging changes in local wind direction in an instrumental variable setup for causal identification. Our findings reveal a significant reduction in time spent outdoors during polluted days, mainly driven by decreased engagement in employment-related activities at the intensive margin. This effect is more prominent among individuals engaged in self-employment and casual wage labor, implying substantial pecuniary costs. Our analysis suggests visually perceptible changes in air quality as a potential mechanism behind the effect, and our results remain robust under various sensitivity tests. Moreover, we find that reduced outdoor time due to air pollution can potentially promote a more equitable allocation of unpaid care responsibilities within households via increased male involvement.