PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Jennifer A. Heissel AU - Claudia Persico AU - David Simon TI - Does Pollution Drive Achievement? The Effect of Traffic Pollution on Academic Performance AID - 10.3368/jhr.57.3.1218-9903R2 DP - 2020 Apr 09 TA - Journal of Human Resources PG - 1218-9903R2 4099 - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/early/2020/04/03/jhr.57.3.1218-9903R2.short 4100 - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/early/2020/04/03/jhr.57.3.1218-9903R2.full AB - We examine the effect of traffic pollution on student outcomes by leveraging variation in wind patterns for schools the same distance from major highways. We compare within-student changes in achievement for students transitioning between schools near highways, where one school has greater levels of pollution because it is downwind of a highway. As students graduate from elementary/middle school to middle/high school, their test scores decrease, behavioral incidents increase, and absence rates increase when they attend a downwind school, relative to when they attend an upwind school in the same zip code. Even within zip codes, microclimates can contribute to inequality.