Mortality, Temperature, and Public Health Provision: Evidence from Mexico

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: COHEN, F. R. A. N. C. O. I. S.; DECHEZLEPRETRE, A. N. T. O. I. N. E.
• 署名单位: University of Barcelona; University of Oxford; University of London; London School Economics & Political Science
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-ECONOMIC POLICY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7731
• DOI: 10.1257/pol.20180594
• 发表日期: 2022
• 页码: 161-192
• 关键词: seguro-popular program; CLIMATE-CHANGE; ambient-temperature; sao-paulo; heat; adaptation; insurance; weather; cold; humidity

摘要

We examine the impact of temperature on mortality in Mexico using daily data over the period 1998-2017 and find that 3.8 percent of deaths in Mexico are caused by suboptimal temperature (26,000 every year). However, 92 percent of weather-related deaths are induced by cold (<12 degrees C) or mildly cold (12-20 degrees C) days and only 2 percent by outstandingly hot days (>32 degrees C). Furthermore, temperatures are twice as likely to kill people in the bottom half of the income distribution. Finally, we show causal evidence that the Seguro Popular, a universal health care policy, has saved at least 1,600 lives per year from cold weather since 2004.