This article examines how pollution and its health effects during childhood can affect the dynamics of inequalities among households. In a model in which children’s health is endogenously determined by pollution and the health investments of parents, we show that the economy may exhibit inequality in the long run and be stuck in an inequality trap with steadily increasing disparities, because of pollution. We investigate if an environmental policy, consisting in taxing the polluting production to fund pollution abatement, can address this issue. We find that it can decrease inequality in the long run and enable to escape from the trap if the emission intensity is not too high and if initial disparities are not too wide. Otherwise, we reveal that a policy mix with an additional subsidy to health expenditure may be a better option, at least if parental investment on children’s health is sufficiently efficient.

本文探讨了儿童期的污染及其对健康的影响如何影响家庭之间不平等的动态。在一个模型中，儿童的健康状况是由污染和父母的健康投入来内生地决定的，我们表明，从长远来看，经济可能会表现出不平等，并由于污染而陷入不平等的陷阱，差距不断增加。我们调查一项环境政策（包括对污染产品征税以资助减少污染）是否可以解决此问题。我们发现，从长远来看，如果发射强度不太高并且初始视差不太宽，它可以从陷阱中逃脱。否则，我们就会发现，将政策组合与医疗费用的额外补贴结合起来可能是一个更好的选择，