RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Pollution and Politician Productivity: The Effect of PM on MPs
JF Land Economics
JO Land Econ
FD University of Wisconsin Press
SP 157
OP 173
DO 10.3368/le.95.2.157
VO 95
IS 2
A1 Heyes, Anthony
A1 Rivers, Nicholas
A1 Schaufele, Brandon
YR 2019
UL http://le.uwpress.org/content/95/2/157.abstract
AB 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. (JEL Q52, Q53)