Unseen damage: Bushfire, infant health and early child development

Naturally occurring bushfires have become a global concern, with epidemiological evidence highlighting the unique toxicity of bushfire smoke compared to ambient air pollution. Leveraging remote-sensing data and a novel dynamic-radius fire assignment strategy, this paper causally examines the longitudinal impacts of in utero and neonatal bushfire smoke exposure on the medium-run health and cognitive development of Australian children, from infancy to late adolescence. The results show strong negative effects of prenatal exposure on birth outcomes, with evidence pointing to air pollution, rather than maternal stress, as the primary mechanism. Consistent with the documented resilience of female fetuses, the impact on asthma diagnosis is more pronounced among males. Neonatal exposure is associated with lower likelihood of achieving a healthy BMI before puberty and delayed development of working memory in adolescence. Further analysis highlights the nurturing aspect of parental involvement in mitigating the adverse effects of early-life exposure on later educational outcomes. A series of robustness checks were performed, with results that reinforce the main findings.