Tropical Storms and Mortality under Climate Change

Todd Pugatch

No 304, GLO Discussion Paper Series from Global Labor Organization (GLO)

Abstract: Extreme weather induced by climate change can have major consequences for human health. In this study, I quantify the effect of tropical storm frequency and severity on mortality using objective meteorological data and the universe of vital statistics records from a large developing country, Mexico. Using a measure of storm exposure that accounts for both windspeed dispersion and population density along the storm track, I project changes in past storm-related mortality under various scenarios of continued climate change, while holding population and income at current levels. I find that storm-related deaths would have risen under most climate change scenarios considered, with increases of as much as 52% or declines of as much as 10%, depending on the interplay between increasing storm severity and decreased frequency.

Keywords: tropical storms; tropical cyclones; hurricanes; natural disasters; human mortality; human health; climate change; developing countries; Latin America; Mexico (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I15 J10 O13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-dev, nep-env and nep-hea
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/191519/1/GLO-DP-0304.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Tropical storms and mortality under climate change (2019)
Working Paper: Tropical Storms and Mortality under Climate Change (2019)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:glodps:304

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