Improving Residential Indoor Air Quality in Mexico City: Effects on Wellbeing and Productivity

Air pollution has significant negative effects on health and economic outcomes in urban centers of Latin America, and unequal exposure to air pollution may be exacerbating income and health inequalities. Because individuals spend most of their lives indoors, researchers will study residential indoor air quality in Mexico City. First, researchers will measure residential indoor air quality, including levels of particulate matter, and estimate the pass-through from outdoor air quality to indoor air quality. Second, they will use a randomized evaluation and data from household surveys to address the following two research questions: 

1. What barriers do households face in improving indoor air quality, and what interventions are cost-effective in improving indoor air quality? 
2. What is the effect of improved indoor air quality on households’ time use, economic outcomes, such as productivity, and self-reported as well as objective measures of health and wellbeing, such as sleep quality?