CPRC

Past Research: Professor Neidell’s research focuses on two distinct topics: 1) the impact of air pollution on children’s health; and 2) the consequences of early investments in children. On the first topic, two papers (with Janet Currie) use quasi-experimental techniques to obtain estimates of the causal effect of air pollution on childhood asthma and infant mortality in California; both papers demonstrate strong effects of carbon monoxide on children’s health. On the second topic, Neidell (with Janet Currie) has examined the impact of Head Start quality on children’s outcomes; they found that former Head Start children had higher test scores where Head Start spending was higher and that children in programs that devoted higher shares of their budgets to child-specific expenditures had better outcomes.

Present/Future Research: Neidell has ongoing work on both of these research areas. With respect to the effects of air pollution on children’s health, Neidell and co-authors are using microdata from Texas to evaluate the effect of carbon monoxide on children’s school absences, which is a more sensitive measure of children’s health than mortality and asthma hospitalizations. In another follow-up working paper, Neidell is examining people’s responses to information about pollution; this work suggests that not accounting for behavioral responses results in under-estimating the relationship between pollution and health. With respect to early investments in children, Neidell (with Jane Waldfogel) is exploring the impact of Head Start availability on the decision to enroll a child in Head Start. Also, Neidell and Waldfogel are assessing the spillover effects in kindergarten of having more peers who attended preschool, an important—but often overlooked—social benefit from preschool.

Professor Neidell's Departmental Biography Page