On April 19, 2024, from 10:00 PM to 11:00 PM, Peking University Institute for Global Health and Development successfully hosted the 7^h session of the Spring 2024 Reading Club. The keynote speaker for this event was PhD student Yuyang Zhang Peking University Institute for Global Health and Development.

The article presented in this event is “The effects of temperature on childhood cognitive development: evidence from China”. This paper based on a panel dataset—the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Survey (CHARLS)—and other city- and individual-level datasets, this study examines the causal impact of pollution information disclosure on individual outdoor activities and the health status of the middle-aged and elderly. Using city-level variations in disclosure timing, we found that the adoption of pollution information disclosure (PID) significantly reduces the probability of outdoor exercise, especially for those living in more polluted cities. This occurs mainly through enhanced awareness of environmental pollution, particularly for those who are more educated. However, the adoption of PID does not lead to an improvement in health status.

（By Yuyang Zhang）