报告题目：Air Pollution and Cognitive Function: Evidence from Crop Production Cycles

报告人：赖汪洋 （上海财经大学）

报告时间：2018年11月2日（周五）上午10:30-12:00

报告地点：bat365中文官方网站大楼409室

邀请部门：bat365中文官方网站经济学系

主持人：蒋士成

报告内容摘要:  

By exploring crop production cycles in China, this paper examines the impact of air pollution from agricultural fires on human cognitive health by linking household health survey data with fires recorded by remote sensing. The analysis shows a significant negative impact of fire occurrence on cognitive health from a variety of empirical specifications: senior respondents (aged 55 and above) in counties with higher frequencies of straw fires have lower scores in a test of mental intactness and recall fewer objects in a delayed memory test. The negative effect of straw fires on participants’ test results becomes stronger with age, supporting that air pollution causes the process of cognitive decline to begin earlier. Moreover, the impact is only detected among respondents living in downwind counties but not upwind counties. Our findings demonstrate the link between environmental pollution and age-related cognitive decline and indicate that climate change may increase healthcare costs by increasing the risk of wildfires.

报告人简介：

Wangyang Lai received his Ph.D. in 2017 from Ohio State University. He joined the School of Economics at Shanghai University of Finance & Economics in 2017. His areas of specialization include environmental economics, development economics, urban economics and applied econometrics. He published paper in journals such as Journal of Environmental Economics and Management. His research received support from Shanghai Pujiang Talent Program 2018 and China National Natural Science Foundation 2018.