AIR POLLUTION AND SICK LEAVES: THE CHILD HEALTH LINK

Abstract

We examine the effect of air pollution (particulate matter under 10 µg/m3, or mp10 concentrations) on sick leaves due to the child's health being affected. Our dataset is a large panel of Chilean parent-child pairs observed during the 52 weeks of 2007. Two main findings are reported. First, mp10 concentrations have a strong effect on child hospitalizations, and in particular hospitalizations for respiratory conditions. Second, mp10 concentrations also have an important effect on parental sick leaves when the underlying diagnosis is related to a respiratory condition, but no effects are observed in aggregate parental sick leaves.