The primary finding of this paper is that carbon monoxide (CO) has a significant effect on hospitalizations for asthma among children ages 1 to 18, while none of the pollutants considered has a clear impact on hospitalizations for infants. This discrepancy across age groups is possibly due to the complications inherent in diagnosing asthma in infants. To assess the importance of these findings, I analyze California’s Low-Emission Vehicle II standards and find that nearly 15-20% of the costs from this policy are recovered in asthma hospitalizations for children alone. Second, I find that families display avoidance behavior by.
