Under the Weather: Health, Schooling, and Economic Consequences of Early-Life Rainfall

Maccini, Sharon; Yang, Dean

doi:10.1257/aer.99.3.1006

Cited by 885 publications

(577 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…Bohra-Mishra et al (2014), described above, found a significant nonlinear effect of rainfall levels on migration. This is consistent with at least one other study from Indonesia that documented the effects of early-life rainfall levels on later-life health outcomes (Maccini and Yang 2009). However, other research suggests that delays in monsoon onset have a particularly strong and significant impact on rice and maize production, which plays a key role in the Indonesian economy (Naylor et al 2002(Naylor et al , 2007 and has important consequences for household economic status (Skoufias et al 2012).…”

Section: Current Studysupporting

confidence: 90%

Erratum to: Heterogeneous climate effects on human migration in Indonesia

Thiede

Gray

2017

Popul Environ

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We examine the effect of anomalous temperatures, rainfall levels, and monsoon timing on migration outcomes in Indonesia. Using panel data from the Indonesian Family Life Survey and high-resolution climate data, we assess whether intra-and interprovince moves are used as a response to climatic shocks. We evaluate the relative importance of temperature, rainfall, and monsoon timing for migration. Temperature and monsoon timing have significant effects, and these do not operate in the direction commonly assumed. Estimated effects vary according to individuals' gender, membership in a farm household, and location. We also analyze climate effects on sources of household income, which point to the multi-phasic nature of household responses. Results undermine narratives of a uniform global migratory response to climate change and highlight the heterogeneous use of migration as a response to such changes. By extending previous research on environmentally induced migration in Indonesia, we also highlight the sensitivity of estimates to alternative climate and migration measures.

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Section: Current Studysupporting

confidence: 90%

Erratum to: Heterogeneous climate effects on human migration in Indonesia

Thiede

Gray

2017

Popul Environ

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“…on September 8, 2016 http://science.sciencemag.org/ contexts, adverse rainfall in the year of birth lowers adult female health outcomes and educational attainment (71), and droughts experienced by toddlers lower childhood growth and education (30,72). These rainfall-related impacts likely operate through agricultural income loss and lowered nutrition; however, our understanding of these channels is generally weak, and work is needed to parse out direct physiological impacts from economic factors and behavioral responses.…”

Section: Research | Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social and economic impacts of climate

Carleton

Hsiang

2016

Science

928

509

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BACKGROUND: For centuries, thinkers have considered whether and how climatic conditions influence the nature of societies and the performance of economies. A multidisciplinary renaissance of quantitative empirical research has begun to illuminate key linkages in the coupling of these complex natural and human systems, uncovering notable effects of climate on health, agriculture, economics, conflict, migration, and demographics.ADVANCES: Past scholars of climate-society interactions were limited to theorizing on the basis of anecdotal evidence; advances in computing, data availability, and study design now allow researchers to draw generalizable causal inferences tying climatic events to social outcomes. This endeavor has demonstrated that a range of climate factors have substantial influence on societies and economies, both past and present, with important implications for the future.Temperature, in particular, exerts remarkable influence over human systems at many social scales; heat induces mortality, has lasting impact on fetuses and infants, and incites aggression and violence while lowering human productivity. High temperatures also damage crops, inflate electricity demand, and may trigger population movements within and across national borders. Tropical cyclones cause mortality, damage assets, and reduce economic output for long periods. Precipitation extremes harm economies and populations predominately in agriculturally dependent settings. These effects are often quantitatively substantial; for example, we compute that temperature depresses current U.S. maize yields roughly 48%, warming trends since 1980 elevated conflict risk in Africa by 11%, and future warming may slow global economic growth rates by 0.28 percentage points year −1 . Much research aims to forecast impacts of future climate change, but we point out that society may also benefit from attending to ongoing impacts of climate in the present, because current climatic conditions impose economic and social burdens on populations today that rival in magnitude the projected end-ofcentury impacts of climate change. For instance, we calculate that current temperature climatologies slow global economic growth roughly 0.25 percentage points year −1 , comparable to the additional slowing of 0.28 percentage points year −1 projected from future warming. Both current and future losses can theoretically be avoided if populations adapt to fully insulate themselves from the climate-why this has not already occurred everywhere remains a critical open question. For example, clear patterns of adaptation in health impacts and in response to tropical cyclones contrast strongly with limited adaptation in agricultural and macroeconomic responses to temperature. Although some theories suggest these various levels of adaptation ought to be economically optimal, in the sense that costs of additional adaptive actions should exactly balance the benefits of avoided climate-related losses, there is no evidence that allows us to determine how closely observed "adaptation...

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“…However, one case from Bangladesh shows that non-poor households face a larger share of shocks, especially a larger share of asset shocks than the poor do (Santos, Sharif, Rahman, & Zaman, 2011). The shocks can cause substantial short-run losses in assets, incomes (Elbers et al, 2007;Morris et al, 2002;Thomas et al, 2010), and health (Dercon & Hoddinott, 2003;Maccini & Yang, 2009), and could have long-run negative effects on a household's livelihood (Thomas et al, 2010). The adverse events can also cause the household to have a higher vulnerability to poverty (Imai et al, 2011;Santos et al, 2011).…”

Section: Empirical Evidence From the Literature On Shock Recoverymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Using also Indonesian Family Life Surveys data from 2000, Maccini and Yang (2009) examine the effect of rainfall variation around the time of birth on the health, education and socioeconomic outcomes of Indonesian adults born between 1953 and 1974. They find that the higher amount of rainfall during a person's early life has positive effects on the outcomes of women but not men.…”

Section: Empirical Evidence From the Literature On Shock Recoverymentioning

confidence: 99%

Household's coping strategies and recoveries from shocks in Vietnam

Tran

2015

The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance

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Under the Weather: Health, Schooling, and Economic Consequences of Early-Life Rainfall

Cited by 885 publications

References 34 publications

Erratum to: Heterogeneous climate effects on human migration in Indonesia

Erratum to: Heterogeneous climate effects on human migration in Indonesia

Social and economic impacts of climate

Household's coping strategies and recoveries from shocks in Vietnam

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