Children born just north of China's Huai River — where free coal heating created persistent pollution — completed almost one full year less of education than children born just south.
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At 45:52 · chapter starts 43:55
Greenstone has always argued that the 'holy grail' of pollution research is long-run variation — not day-to-day fluctuations, but the kind of persistent difference that policy actually creates. The Huai River heating policy, which gave free coal to provinces north of the river and nothing to provinces south, with limited migration between sides, offered exactly that. [1] — Michael Greenstone "China's Huai River heating policy drew an arbitrary line across the country: free coal for the north, nothing for the south. Because migrat…" 43:50 Among roughly 40,000 people in urban areas within five degrees latitude of the river, people born just north lived about 3 years less than those born just south. In subsequent research, Greenstone extended the analysis to children born between 1975 and 1982: north-side children completed nearly a full year less of education and, observed as adults, earned 13% less. Greenstone calls this the first large-scale evidence on the impacts of long-run early childhood pollution exposure at the concentrations that prevail across much of Asia and sub-Saharan Africa today.
People born just north of China's Huai River — where coal heating caused heavy pollution — lived on average 3 years less than those born just south.
Adults born just north of the Huai River — exposed to coal smoke from China's heating policy — earned on average 13% less than those born just south.
Michael Greenstone argues that because we have ignored the cognitive costs of pollution, we have been understating total losses from air pollution by about 50%.
Beijing's particulate matter levels fell from over 100 micrograms per cubic meter in 2013 to just over 50 by 2018 — a dramatic improvement China achieved faster than the US ever did after the Clean Air Act.
Beijing's particulate matter levels fell from over 100 micrograms per cubic meter in 2013 to just over 50 by 2018. Greenstone estimates a child born in 2018 will live 1.4 years longer than one born in 2013 — a pace of cleanup the US never matched after its own Clean Air Act.
U.S. college enrollment surged from just 14% in the 1970s to roughly 60% by the 1990s, extending the educational and exploratory phase of young adulthood and delaying commitment.
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May, a 33-year-old with $69,000 in combined debt, is considering a forensic pathologist career that would require 11–13 years of medical school training.
Boys are twice as likely to be suspended for the exact same behavior as a girl, and five times as likely if the boy is Black.
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Godin illustrates sunk cost fallacy with a parking example: even after pre-paying $35 for a lot, passing a free street space triggers irrational hesitation to switch — yet the rational choice is always the free space.
Citing Daniel Kahneman's work on loss aversion, Bartlett explains that humans need to find £20 to emotionally offset the pain of losing £10 — pleasure and pain are not symmetrical.
College students who saw an age-progressed photo of their future selves were more motivated to start a savings account, demonstrating imagination's real behavioral impact.
Nearly 300 top researchers have applied for scientific asylum in France as the Trump administration threatens to defund billions in university research.
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