Indoor Air Quality and Academic Performance
37 Pages Posted: 15 Oct 2013 Last revised: 29 Oct 2013
There are 2 versions of this paper
Indoor Air Quality and Academic Performance
Indoor Air Quality and Academic Performance
Date Written: October 29, 2013
Abstract
I examine the effect of school indoor air quality (IAQ) on academic outcomes. I utilize a quasi-natural experiment, in which IAQ-renovations were completed at virtually every school in a single Texas school district at different points in time, combined with a panel of student-level data to control for many confounding factors and thereby uncover the causal effect of IAQ-renovations on academic outcomes. Results indicate that performance on standardized tests significantly improves while attendance is unresponsive to improvements in IAQ. Rough calculations suggest that IAQ-renovations may be a more cost-effective way to improve standardized test scores than class size reductions.
Keywords: indoor air quality, school renovations, academic performance
JEL Classification: I21, Q53
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation