This paper investigates the long-term consequences of in-utero exposure to agricultural fires in rural China. We show that in-utero exposure to agricultural fires significantly reduces individuals health, cognitive, and non-cognitive performance in adolescence, and decreases education years and earnings in adulthood. Households respond to the negative health shock by reallocating investment away from exposed children. The provision of Health insurance can largely offset the deleterious effects of agricultural fire exposure.

This paper investigates the economic impacts of the “Taobao Villages (TBVs)” program in China, a bottom-up pilot on rural e-commerce that is imitated na-tionwide under top-down directives. Contrary to previous findings that confirm the positive role of TBVs in promoting village economies, our nationwide analysis finds that the establishment of TBVs significantly reduces night light of townships. Suugestive evidence shows that the strategic behavior of local governments could be the potential channel.