Chernobyl’s subclinical legacy: Prenatal exposure to radioactive fallout and school outcomes in Sweden¤ Douglas Almond,yLena Edlundzand M˚artenPalmex November 6, 2008 Abstract We use prenatal exposure to Chernobyl fallout in Sweden as a natural ex- periment in cognitive ability. Students born in regions of Sweden with higher fallout performed worse in secondary school, Math in particular. Damage is ac- centuated within families (i.e., siblings comparison) and among children born to parents with low education. In contrast, we detect no corresponding damage to health outcomes. To the extent that parents responded to the cognitive endow- ment, we infer that parental investments reinforced the initial Chernobyl damage. From a public health perspective, our findings suggest that neural development is compromised at radiation doses currently considered safe. ¤We would like to thank Leif Moberg (Swedish Radiation Protection Authority) for providing the radiation data and key references. We also thank Johanna Adami, Hoyt Bleakley, David Brenner, Janet Currie, Lucas Davis, Tore Ellingsen, Avraham Ebenstein, Andrew Foster, Michael Greenstone, Eric Hall, Per Hall, Ethan Kaplan, Wojciech Kopczuk, Wilbert van der Klaauw, David Lee, Bhashkar Mazumder, Costas Meghir, Torsten Persson, Cristian Pop-Eleches, Heather Royer, William Schull, David Str¨omberg, Ezra Susser, Miguel Urquiola, Simon Wright, and Lydia Zablotska for valuable com- ments. Sarena Goodman provided valuable research assistance. Financial support from the National Science Foundation (grant 0721155) and the Russell Sage Foundation is gratefully acknowledged. yDept. of Economics, Columbia University and NBER. E-mail:
[email protected] zDept. of Economics, Columbia University. E-mail:
[email protected] xDept. of Economics, Stockholm University.