From Low Emission Zone to academic track: Environmental policy effects on educational achievement in elementary school
研究了德国低排放区政策对小学生学业成绩的影响，发现该政策使进入中学学术轨道的比例提高约1个百分点（2.4%），表明减少空气污染能带来显著的教育协同效益。
Do long-term improvements in air quality influence children’s educational outcomes? This paper investigates the impact of Low Emission Zones (LEZs), which restrict access to designated areas for emission-intensive vehicles, on the educational achievement of elementary school students in Germany. Using school-level data from North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany’s most populous state, we exploit the staggered introduction of LEZs since 2008 with a difference-in-differences approach. LEZ implementations increase transition rates to the academic track in secondary education by approximately one percentage point, or 2.4 percent. We validate this finding using more aggregated district-level data across all of Germany. Our findings imply sizable educational co-benefits of reductions in air pollution.