Air quality was extremely poor in Indonesia in late 1997 due to smoke from massive wildfires. This paper examines the impact this episode of air pollution (particulate matter) had on infant and fetal mortality. Deaths are inferred from “missing children” in the 2000 Indonesian Census, analyzing subdistrict-year-month birth cohorts and exploiting the sharp timing and spatial patterns of the pollution. Exposure to pollution during the last trimester in utero is found to have a large effect on survival.
The fire-induced pollution caused a 1.0% decrease in cohort size, or over 16,400 missing children across Indonesia for the five-month period of high exposure. In addition, pollution has much larger mortality effects in poorer areas. The results suggest that environmental damage that occurs alongside economic development has large and regressive health costs.