The Hidden Cost of Prenatal Heat Stress Exposure: Evidence on Psychological Well-Being in China

Jiaowei Gong, Xiaoyu Li, Yinghao Pan and Yang Zhang

Economic Development and Cultural Change, 2025, vol. 74, issue 1, 181 - 211

Abstract: This paper examines how exposure to extreme heat during gestation affects psychological well-being in adulthood by using nationally representative data from China. We find that prenatal exposure to heat stress significantly increases unhappiness, life dissatisfaction, and depressive symptoms later in life. These adverse effects are particularly pronounced among women and individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds, including those born in vulnerable settings or raised in unfavorable family environments. The timing of exposure suggests that heat stress disrupts neurologic and brain development during the second and third trimesters, subsequently impeding human and social capital formation. Our findings reveal welfare costs of in utero environmental shocks and their lasting implications for mental health.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/735375 (application/pdf)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/735375 (text/html)
Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ucp:ecdecc:doi:10.1086/735375

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Economic Development and Cultural Change from University of Chicago Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Journals Division ().