Heat, infant mortality, and adaptation: Evidence from India

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Banerjee, Rakesh; Maharaj, Riddhi
• 署名单位: University of Exeter
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0304-3878
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2019.102378
• 发表日期: 2020
• 关键词: adaptation; climate change; infant mortality; temperature; Public workfare; Community Health Workers; INDIA

摘要

We examine the impact of extreme heat during pregnancy on infant mortality and check if public interventions can serve as effective adaptation strategies. We show that 2 children die as infants out of 1000 births in India for high temperature during pregnancy, tentatively due to reduced agricultural yields, wages, and greater disease prevalence like diarrhea. The heat-infant mortality relationship holds in rural India only. Using phased introduction of an employment guarantee program and partial introduction of a community health care worker program for identification, we find that only the health program is effective in modifying the temperature-infant mortality relationship in rural India.