Mitigating long-run health effects of drought: Evidence from South Africa

Taryn Dinkelman

No 9801, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: Drought is Africa?s primary natural disaster and a pervasive source of income risk for poor households. This paper documents the long-run health effects of early life exposure to drought and investigates an important source of heterogeneity in these effects. Combining birth cohort variation in South African Census data with cross-sectional and temporal drought variation, I estimate long-run health impacts of drought exposure among Africans confined to homelands during apartheid. Drought exposure in early childhood significantly raises later life male disability rates by 4% and reduces cohort size. Among a subset of homelands ? the TBVC areas ? disability effects are double and negative cohort effects are significantly larger. I show that differences in spatial mobility restrictions that influence the extent of migrant networks across TBVC and non-TBVC areas contribute to this heterogeneity. Placebo checks show no differential disability impacts of drought exposure across TBVC and non-TBVC areas after the repeal of migration restrictions. The results show that although drought has significant long-run effects on health human capital, migrant networks in poor economies provide one channel through which families mitigate these negative impacts of local environmental shock

Keywords: Disability and early life health; Drought; Local shocks; Migration; South Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I15 J61 N37 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr, nep-env, nep-hea, nep-mig and nep-ure
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Working Paper: Mitigating Long-run Health Effects of Drought: Evidence from South Africa (2013)
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