TY  - JOUR
AU  - Almond,Douglas
AU  - Edlund,Lena
AU  - Palme,Mårten
TI  - Chernobyl's Subclinical Legacy: Prenatal Exposure to Radioactive Fallout and School Outcomes in Sweden
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 13347
PY  - 2007
Y2  - August 2007
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w13347
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w13347.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Douglas Almond
Department of Economics
Columbia University
International Affairs Building, MC 3308
420 West 118th Street
New York, NY 10027
Tel: 212/854-7248
Fax: 212/854-3239
E-Mail: da2152@columbia.edu

Lena Edlund
Department of Economics
Columbia University
1002A IAB, MC 3308
420 West 118th Street
New York, NY 10027
Tel: 212/854-4513
Fax: 212/854-8059
E-Mail: le93@columbia.edu

Mårten Palme
Department of Economics
Stockholm University
SE-106 91 Stockholm
SWEDEN
E-Mail: Marten.Palme@ne.su.se
AB  - Japanese atomic bomb survivors irradiated 8-25 weeks after ovulation subsequently suffered reduced IQ [Otake and Schull, 1998]. Whether these findings generalize to low doses (less than 10 mGy) has not been established. This paper exploits the natural experiment generated by the Chernobyl nuclear accident in April 1986, which caused a spike in radiation levels in Sweden. In a comprehensive data set of 562,637 Swedes born 1983-1988, we find that the cohort in utero during the Chernobyl accident had worse school outcomes than adjacent birth cohorts, and this deterioration was largest for those exposed approximately 8-25 weeks post conception. Moreover, we find larger damage among students born in regions that received more fallout: students from the eight most affected municipalities were 3.6 percentage points less likely to qualify to high school as a result of the fallout. Our findings suggest that fetal exposure to ionizing radiation damages cognitive ability at radiation levels  previously considered safe.
ER  -