Long-run Health Repercussions of Drought Shocks: Evidence from South African Homelands

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Dinkelman, Taryn
• 署名单位: National Bureau of Economic Research; Dartmouth College
• 刊物名称: ECONOMIC JOURNAL
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0013-0133
• DOI: 10.1111/ecoj.12361
• 发表日期: 2017
• 页码: 1906-1939
• 关键词: economic consequences; early-childhood; fetal origins; blindness; LIFE; intensity; nutrition; stature; height; famine

摘要

I present new evidence from Africa that droughts are an important component of long-run variation in health human capital. Using Census data, I estimate effects of early childhood drought exposure on later-life disabilities among South Africans confined to homelands during apartheid. By exploiting 40 years of quasi-random variation in local droughts experienced by different cohorts in different districts, I find that drought exposure in infancy raises later-life disability rates by 3.5-5.2%, with effects concentrated in physical and mental disabilities, and largest for males. My findings are relevant for low-income settings where avoiding droughts through migration is costly.