Long-Run Consequences of Exposure to Natural Disasters

Abstract

We utilize the individual-level World War I Draft Registration Cards matched to late-nineteenth century hurricane paths and the 1940 U.S. Census to explore whether fetal and early childhood exposure to stress caused by hurricanes a¯ects human capital development and labor market outcomes in adulthood. Di¯erence-in-di¯erences estimates indicate that white males who were born in the South and experienced a hurricane either in utero or as infants had lower income at ages 42 to 53. They are robust to alternate specifications of either the treatment or outcome variables, as well as changes in the tolerance for imperfectly matched historical data.

Women's Suffrage and Children's Education

“…However, for Southern blacks, we find an insignificant impact on employment and a marginally significant decline in earnings. The absence of labor market gains for this group is perhaps not entirely surprising -it is consistent with prior evidence of labor market discrimination or and the low quality of education for this group (Card and Krueger, 1992;Karbownik and Wray, 2019;Bhalotra and Venkataramani, 2015). 32 The point estimates are noisy, though, and we can not rule out some small earnings gains.…”

Family Ruptures, Stress, and the Mental Health of the Next Generation

“…Indeed, evidence in support of David J. Barker's "fetal origins hypothesis" (Barker 1990), which argues that poor conditions in utero can lead to latent effects on disease much later in life, comes from studies of adults who are much older than the individuals in our sample. 18 Additionally, throughout the paper, we explore whether there are any differential effects of exposure to maternal stress across different months or trimesters of pregnancy. The existing literature does not provide a clear picture of whether we should expect in utero exposure to maternal stress to have differential effects across gestational age at the time of shock.…”

“…Another recent paper uses in utero exposure to the Super Bowl to identify the effects of prenatal stress on birth outcomes (Duncan, Mansour, and Rees 2015). 18 See, e.g., Susser and Lin (1992); Almond (2006); Hoynes, Schanzenbach, and Almond (2016).…”

Strengthened scientific support for the Endangerment Finding for atmospheric greenhouse gases

“…1, right column). In the United States, economic impacts of hot temperatures and changing tropical cyclone environments are clearly documented (238), and growing evidence indicates long-term adverse effects on the labor force (269)(270)(271). Other impacts, such as those from water availability or wildfire risks, are thought to be important but remain less well understood (272).…”