Exploring the impact of livestock on air quality: A deep dive into Ammonia and particulate matter in Lombardy

The linkage between agricultural activities, particularly livestock farming, and atmospheric pollution is broadly acknowledged, and its magnitude is widely analyzed. Lombardy, one of Europe's most critical areas with regard to air pollution, has significantly large contributions from the farming industry. Although studies aimed at informing policy reflect uncertain and moderate pollution reduction even under simulated stringent policy scenarios, granular causal evidence at a sub-sector level ...

Lithium-ion batteries and fertility in Africa

This study investigates how the global adoption of modern electrical batteries influenced women’s fertility choices in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a country rich in cobalt, an essential component of lithium-ion batteries. The findings reveal that women living in cobalt-rich villages experience higher fertility rates and a greater desire for children relative to those in non-cobalt-rich communities. I attribute this phenomenon to the use of children in cobalt mines, as opposed to oth...

Climate, desertification, and local human development: evidence from 1564 regions around the world

How global warming affects human development is a central question for economists as well as social scientists. While most of the literature has focused on the impact of weather on income, less is known on the relationship between climate and local human development. This paper considers shocks in precipitation, temperature, and an original measure of soil aridity to first exploit the association between climate warming and human development, and second, on its dimensions. We show that while ...

Detailed culture protocol for the generation of human polarized cortical assembloids (polCA) v1