Three Papers in Environmental and Natural Resource Economics

منو

" Three Papers in Environmental and Natural Resource Economics "
Goodwin, Chris Deschenes, Olivier

Document Type	:	Latin Dissertation
Language of Document	:	English
Record Number	:	903526
Doc. No	:	TL6qz9d14b
Main Entry	:	Goodwin, Chris
Title & Author	:	Three Papers in Environmental and Natural Resource Economics\ Goodwin, ChrisDeschenes, Olivier
College	:	UC Santa Barbara
Date	:	2015
student score	:	2015
Abstract	:	The first chapter concerns the eruption of Mount St. Helens in Washington State on May 18th, 1980 which resulted in a massive and unanticipated particulate air pollution shock. I use the incidence of the ash cloud fallout across Washington as a natural experiment to estimate the effect of a particulate shock on birth outcomes and infant mortality. I find that while there is no statistical effect on infant mortality, there were statistically fewer low birth weight babies born. The measured effect indicates about 230 fewer babies were born as a result of exposure while in the womb. These results suggest that about 1 in 10 pregnancies were terminated from the 20th percentile group of the weight distribution, increasing to almost 1 in 5 in the lowest 5th percentile. The effect is found to be the strongest in the early stages of pregnancy. Using these findings I estimate that the cost of a single particulate shock of typical magnitude on a metropolitan area of median size is
Added Entry	:	Deschenes, Olivier
Added Entry	:	UC Santa Barbara