Lead Exposure and Behavior: Effects on Antisocial and Risky Behavior among Children and Adolescents

Jessica Wolpaw Reyes

NBER Working Paper No. 20366
Issued in August 2014, Revised in October 2014
NBER Program(s):Program on the Economics of Aging, Program on Children, Environment and Energy Program, Health Economics Program

It is well known that exposure to lead has numerous adverse effects on behavior and development. Using data on two cohorts of children from the NLSY, this paper investigates the effect of early childhood lead exposure on behavior problems from childhood through early adulthood. I find large negative consequences of early childhood lead exposure, in the form of an unfolding series of adverse behavioral outcomes: behavior problems as a child, pregnancy and aggression as a teen, and criminal behavior as a young adult. At the levels of lead that were the norm in United States until the late 1980s, estimated elasticities of these behaviors with respect to lead range between 0.1 and 1.0.

Acknowledgments

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Document Object Identifier (DOI): 10.3386/w20366

Published: Jessica Wolpaw Reyes, 2015. "LEAD EXPOSURE AND BEHAVIOR: EFFECTS ON ANTISOCIAL AND RISKY BEHAVIOR AMONG CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS," Economic Inquiry, vol 53(3), pages 1580-1605.

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