Unveiling the Unseen Illness: Public Health Warnings and Heat Stroke

Lester Lusher and Tim Ruberg
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Tim Ruberg: Department of Economics, University of Hohenheim

No 2024-020, Keio-IES Discussion Paper Series from Institute for Economics Studies, Keio University

Abstract: We utilize region-day variation in actual vs. forecasted wet bulb globe temperatures (i.e. forecasting errors) to investigate the effects of the first comprehensive heathealth warning system in Japan. We find that heat alerts led to an increase in heat stroke counts of 17%. An analysis of mechanisms utilizing several datasets suggests the effect is due to increased reporting, as opposed to potential “adverse†behaviors or substitution in health diagnoses. We further find that four times as many heat strokes are detected in low-income neighborhoods compared to high-income neighborhoods, highlighting severe environmental inequalities in health reporting behavior.

Keywords: heat stroke; climate change; warning effectiveness; avoidance behavior (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D90 I12 I18 Q54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 63 pages
Date: 2024-09-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-env and nep-hea
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:keo:dpaper:2024-020

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