The Hidden Costs of Recycling: Lead Exposure and Student Learning

Exploiting the 2007 opening of 26 used-lead-acid-battery recycling plants in Kenya as a natural experiment, I estimate the causal effect of recycling-driven lead exposure on children’s learning using individual national-exam records in difference-in-differences and event-study designs. Exposure lowers test scores by 0.18 standard deviations, with losses twice as large at schools closest to the plants, exceeding the gains from leading school-based learning interventions.