The Intergenerational Effects of the Clean Air Act of 1970

This paper examines the intergenerational consequences of in-utero exposure to air pollution, using parent-child links from the administrative U.S. Census data and the universe of IRS 1040 tax returns. We exploit changes in air pollution driven by the 1970 Clean Air Act to analyze the difference in outcomes between the children of cohorts born in counties before and after large improvements in air pollution relative to the children of those same cohorts born in counties that had no improvements. Our analysis begins with an examination of the long-run consequences for those that were directly affected, before exploring the degree to which any consequences were passed onto the second generation.