Modern environmentalism has conceded a trade-off between clean air and economic growth, with a value judgement towards the former. Fortunately, the trade-off is bullshit! Air pollution is actively harming our cognitive abilities, crippling economic output.

In blue collar farm work, air pollution reduces worker productivity: a 10 ppb decrease in ozone concentration corresponds to a 4.2% increase in worker productivity. ( https://www.nber.org/papers/w17004.pdf)

In home investment, air pollution reduces the likelihood that investors will sit down and actually begin trading -- which is claimed to be a good proxy of white collar productivity in general. ( https://www.nber.org/papers/w24048 )

Perhaps most incredibly, a short-term increase in particulate matter in Manhattan corresponds to a 12% decrease in same day returns at the NY Stock Exchange! ( https://www.nber.org/papers/w22753 )

Unfortunately, air pollution doesn't only contract the size and efficacy of the present labour market, it also undermines our future labour market: kids' ability to learn is severely restricted by particulate matter.

Kids who transition to schools downwind of highways suffer lower test scores, greater absences and more 'behavioral incidents' ( https://www.nber.org/papers/w25489 ), which is consistent with other evidence that pollution increases school absences ( https://www.nber.org/papers/w13252 ).

The state of Georgia recently retrofitted a portion of it's schoolbus fleet to reduce diesel emissions. What happened? Not only did kids perform better in aerobic activites, but test scores increased in both English and Mathematics! ( https://www.nber.org/papers/w25641 )

Between 1990 and 2005, Chile managed to reduce carbon monoxide in Santiago by 50%. Rough estimates of increased cognition, based on 4th grade test scores, indicate that lifetime earning per birth cohort increased by approximately US$100m! ( https://www.nber.org/papers/w20662 )

Finally, the well-being implications of air pollution put an enormous burden on the present and future labour markets. It has negative health impacts at both ends of life, and has negative impacts on crime.

For the elderly, doubling the % of time spent downwind of a highway increases mortality by 3.6 to 6.8%. ( https://www.nber.org/papers/w21578 ) and 1 μg-per-m³ increase in average decadal exposure increases the probability of receiving a dementia diagnosis by 1.3%. ( https://www.nber.org/papers/w24970 )

For children, a 10 percent increase in car exhaust pollution increases rates of low birth weight and acute asthma attacks by 1.9 and 8.0 percent, respectively. ( https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3408325)

In Chicago, violent crime is 2.2% higher downwind to the interstate highway than upwind, consistent with literature from psychology on the relationship between pollution and aggression. ( https://www.nber.org/papers/w21578 )

We need to stop viewing education, healthcare, the environment, justice & the economy as distinct components of society, and we need to stop framing environmental regulation as a 'tax' on the economy, but as investment in our human capital.