Into the tropics: Temperature, mortality, and access to health care in Colombia

Juliana Helo Sarmiento

No 20127, Documentos CEDE from Universidad de los Andes, Facultad de Economía, CEDE

Abstract: This paper analyzes the relationship between temperature, mortality, and adaptation opportunities in a tropical country. Such countries host almost 40% of the world's population, and face inherently different environmental, demographic, and socio-economic conditions than their counterparts in temperate areas. Using detailed data from all Colombian municipalities, I show that even at narrow temper- ature ranges, which are characteristic of the tropics, anomalously hot or cold days increase mortality. An additional day with mean temperature above 27°C (80.6°F) increases mortality rates by approximately 0.24 deaths per 100,000, equivalent to 0.7% of monthly death rates. Unlike temperate locations, I find that deaths attributed to infectious diseases and respiratory illnesses drive this relationship in the hot part of the distribution, mainly affecting children aged 0-9. These findings uncover new factors and populations at risk, and imply that the average person who dies after a hot temperature shock loses approximately 30 years of life. I also provide evidence that access to health care and quality of services could serve as a mediating factor between temperature and mortality.

Keywords: Weather; Temperature; Mortality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I12 Q50 Q54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 50
Date: 2022-05-20
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev, nep-env and nep-hea
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https://repositorio.uniandes.edu.co/bitstream/handle/1992/57463/dcede2022-15.pdf

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Journal Article: Into the tropics: Temperature, mortality, and access to health care in Colombia (2023)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:col:000089:020127

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