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Pollution and politician productivity: the effect of PM on MPs

journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-09, 14:33 authored by Anthony Heyes, Nicholas Rivers, Brandon Schaufele
Applying methods of textual analysis to all 119,225 speeches made in the Canadian House of Commons between 2006 and 2011, we establish that air pollution reduces the speech quality of Canadian members of parliament (MPs). Exposure to fine particulate matter concentrations exceeding 15 µg/m3 causes a 2.3% reduction in the quality of MPs’ speech (equivalent to a 2.6 month decrease in education). For more difficult communication tasks the decrement in quality is equivalent to the loss of 6.5 months of schooling. Our design accounts for the potential endogeneity of exposure and controls for many potential confounders including individual fixed effects.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Accepted version

Journal

Land Economics

ISSN

0023-7639

Publisher

University of Wisconsin Press

Issue

2

Volume

95

Page range

157-173

Department affiliated with

  • Economics Publications

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2018-09-05

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2018-09-05

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