Heat, infant mortality, and adaptation: Evidence from India

Rakesh Banerjee and Riddhi Maharaj

Journal of Development Economics, 2020, vol. 143, issue C

Abstract: We examine the impact of extreme heat during pregnancy on infant mortality and check if public interventions can serve as effective adaptation strategies. We show that 2 children die as infants out of 1000 births in India for high temperature during pregnancy, tentatively due to reduced agricultural yields, wages, and greater disease prevalence like diarrhea. The heat-infant mortality relationship holds in rural India only. Using phased introduction of an employment guarantee program and partial introduction of a community health care worker program for identification, we find that only the health program is effective in modifying the temperature-infant mortality relationship in rural India.

Keywords: Adaptation; Climate change; Infant mortality; Temperature; Public workfare; Community health workers; India (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I15 I18 O10 Q50 Q54 Q56 Q58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (32)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:deveco:v:143:y:2020:i:c:s0304387818307041

DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2019.102378

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