Prenatal Exposure to Air Pollution and Intergenerational Economic Mobility: Evidence From U.S. County Birth Cohorts

A clean and safe environment comes with many benefits, including better health early in life, which can translate into higher educational attainment and wages later in life. The study examines how local environmental health exposures, specifically air pollution, may affects intergenerational economic mobility across U.S. counties. Although previous research has extensively explored various socioeconomic factors influencing mobility outcomes, the potential role of local environmental health has largely less unexamined. The study examines whether birth county-level measures of total suspended particulates (TSP) were associated with economic mobility for children born in the early 1980s.

• Higher concentrations of Total Suspended Particulates (TSP) in the birth year are associated with less upward economic mobility for children born to low-income families (the 25th income percentile). This finding suggests that early life exposure to air pollution may reduce the prospects for these children to achieve the “American Dream.”
• The negative impact is quantifiable: a one standard deviation increase in TSP levels in the birth year is associated with a 0.14-point reduction in the mean income percentile rank achieved in adulthood. This reduction is equivalent to approximately $140 less in annual household income for low-income children.
• There was no significant association for children from high-income families (the 75th income percentile), indicating that the negative effect of air pollution on mobility outcomes is specific to, or much stronger for, low-income children. This differential effect may be due to low-income communities experiencing higher pollution burdens or higher-income parents having a greater capacity to mitigate exposure.

The study shows that environmental health plays a meaningful role in shaping intergenerational economic mobility in the United States. Early-life exposure to higher levels of air pollution (TSP) reduces upward mobility for low-income children, an effect not seen among their higher-income peers. These findings highlight the need to incorporate the mobility impacts of prenatal pollution exposure into policy evaluations and cost-benefit analyses, especially for vulnerable populations. Future work should continue examining how environmental conditions and protective factors influence population health and broader economic outcomes.