Long-Term Impacts of High Temperatures on Economic Productivity

Paul Carrillo, Ram Fishman () and Jason Russ ()

Working Papers from The George Washington University, Institute for International Economic Policy

Abstract: High temperature anomalies have recently been shown to have adverse short-term impacts on multiple health and socio-economic outcomes. A well established literature on the impacts of early life stress on life-long human capital accumulation has led us to hypothesize that high temperature anomalies can also have long-term impacts on economic productivity. Using unique data sets on historical weather and the earnings, place and date of birth of all 1.5 million formal employees in Ecuador, we find that women who have experienced a 1°C increase in average temperature while in-utero earn 1.1%-1.7% less as adults. The results are highly robust and suggest warming may already have caused adverse long-term economic losses "in the pipeline" that have not been appreciated to date.

Keywords: Climate Change; Economic Impacts; Fetal Origins (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J31 Q50 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 45 pages
Date: 2015-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-env and nep-lma
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gwi:wpaper:2015-18

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