摘要：

　　Evaluating the potential social costs of environmental degradation on suicide has not received much attention. This paper attempts to fill the gap by estimating the causal effect of air pollution on suicidal ideation among school-age children. We used arguably exogenous daily variations in the local wind direction as instruments for air pollutant concentrations to address endogeneity and measurement errors. Matching a unique youth risk behavior survey of 55,000 students from 273 schools administered by the Jiangsu Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention with rich air pollutants data and weather conditions according to the exact date and location of each interview, we showed that fine particulate matter (PM2.5) increases the rate of suicidal ideation, especially for younger boys with lower academic abilities from less educated families. The effect is contemporaneous and nonlinear, especially when the PM2.5 value is above 150 μg/m3.

　　张欣，北京师范大学统计学院讲师。2017年于北京大学国家发展研究院中国经济研究中心（CCER）获经济学博士学位。研究方向为健康经济学、环境经济学、劳动经济学等。在Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)、Journal of Environmental Economics and Management、Ecological Economics、《经济学（季刊）》发表过论文，担任多个期刊的匿名审稿人。作为负责人主持承担中国博士后科学基金特别资助和面上项目课题。