Air quality and infant mortality in Mexico: Evidence from variation in pollution levels caused by the usage of Small-Scale plants

This paper exploits the discrete change in air pollutants induced by the installation of small-scale power plants throughout Mexico to measure the causal relationship between air pollution and infant mortality, and if this relationship varies by municipaly´s socio-economic conditions. The estimated elasticy for changes in infant mortality due to respiratory diseases with respect to changesin air pollution concentration ranges from 0.58 and 0.84 (more than times higher than the OLS estimate). The effect is significantly lower in municipalities with a high presence of primary health facilities but does not vary significantly by average income and education levels.