"Long-Term consequences of air pollution: Does age or years of exposure matter?"*

This paper examines the long-term impacts of early childhood exposure to pollution by leveraging the sharp decrease in imported sulfur dioxide -- the primary driver of acid rain -- in Norway following the enactment of the Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution. We compare cohorts born in municipalities with significant reductions in pollution exposure before and after the decrease, to cohorts born in municipalities with minimal initial exposure. Using a difference-in-differences design, we find that higher pollution levels are associated with lower academic performance and poorer health outcomes. To further understand the early-life human capital production function, we augment the baseline model with a movers' design to explore asymmetrical moves, which create sharp changes (both in amount and direction) in exposure across ages. Our findings underscore the critical role of early exposure, independent of its duration.

*Co-authored with Aline Bütikofer and Kjell Salvanes

"Minority influence in climate change mitigation"

While the majority of people care about environmental quality, they keep engaging in carbon-intensive practices that exacerbate climate change. Can we expect humans to collectively change by themselves, from the bottom up? Social change is often initiated by minorities – individuals who challenge the status quo. The dominant literature paints a rather pessimistic picture about the ability of minorities to instigate change in the environmental domain: environmental activists, vegans, and other minority members often elicit social sanctions, thereby ironically reinforcing the majority’s commitment to current, environmentally harmful norms. Recent findings, however, point towards more optimism: pro-environmental minorities can pave the way towards ‘tipping points’ and spontaneous social change. Policymakers can speed up this process by offering top-down support for minorities – by giving them ‘voice’.