Natural Disasters and Early Human Development: Hurricane Catarina and Infant Health in Brazil

Victor Hugo de Oliveira (victor.hugo@ipece.ce.gov.br), Ines Lee (il300@cam.ac.uk) and Climent Quintana-Domeque
Additional contact information
Victor Hugo de Oliveira: Instituto de Pesquisa e Estratégia Económica do Ceará
Ines Lee: University of Cambridge

No 2021-005, Working Papers from Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group

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 accounting for flexible season of birth effects compared to a standard differences-in-differences strategy. Using administrative data, we find that average birth weight declined and post-neonatal mortality increased among babies exposed to the hurricane in utero. The adverse effects are driven by babies of younger mothers. Our documented impacts are not explained by reductions in employment or healthcare use. Maternal stress seems to be 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.

Keywords: in utero shocks; infant health; birth weight; fetal mortality; infant mortality; healthcare use (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I10 I12 J13 Q54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea
Note: FI
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

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http://humcap.uchicago.edu/RePEc/hka/wpaper/Olivei ... -early-human-dev.pdf First version, January 27, 2021 (application/pdf)

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Journal Article: Natural Disasters and Early Human Development: Hurricane Catarina and Infant Health in Brazil (2023)
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