Natural disasters and early human development: Hurricane Catarina and infant health in Brazil

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de Oliveira, Victor Hugo ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4737-7062, Lee, Ines and Quintana-Domeque, Climent (2021) Natural disasters and early human development: Hurricane Catarina and infant health in Brazil. Journal of Human Resources. ISSN 0022-166X

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Abstract

We study the impacts of in utero exposure to Hurricane Catarina of March 2004, the first hurricane to hit Brazil. Catarina was unexpected and is representative of other recent hurricanes in the Americas in terms of wind speed, direct economic costs, and population affected. We use a triple-differences strategy (close vs. far municipality, 2004 vs. 2003, after March vs. before) to highlight the importance of flexibly accounting for season of birth effects. We find that the adverse effects of exposure are concentrated among babies born to mothers 15-24 years old: birth weight decreased by 82 g, the probability of being born low birth weight increased by 3.4 pp, and fetal deaths increased by about 17 per 1,000 live births and fetal deaths. These impacts are not explained by reductions in employment or healthcare use. Maternal stress is a plausible mechanism if younger women are more financially vulnerable to negative shocks, consistent with recent work highlighting the relationship between socioeconomic status, stress, and birth outcomes. Our findings are robust to various checks, including testing for pre-trends in infant health outcomes.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	sdg 3 - good health and well-being ,/dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/good_health_and_well_being
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Norwich Medical School
Related URLs:	http://humcap.uchicago.edu/RePEc/hka/wpa...
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	02 Feb 2022 15:30
Last Modified:	03 Jan 2023 10:33
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/83266
DOI:	10.3368/jhr.59.1.0816-8144r1

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