Temperature, climate change, and human conception rates: Evidence from Hungary

Tamás Hajdu and Gábor Hajdu

No 2017, CERS-IE WORKING PAPERS from Institute of Economics, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies

Abstract: In this paper, we examine the relationship between temperature and human conception rates and project the impacts of climate change by the mid-twenty-first century. Using complete administrative data on 6.8 million pregnancies between 1980 and 2015 in Hungary, we show that exposure to hot temperatures reduces the conception rate in the first few weeks following the exposure, but a partial rebound is observed after that. Absent adaptation, climate change is projected to increase seasonal differences in conception rates, and a decline is expected in terms of annual conception rates. This latter decline is driven by a change in the number of induced abortions and spontaneous fetal losses. The overall number of live births is unaffected. However, some newborns may experience non-negligible consequences because of the altering in utero temperature exposure due to a shift in the timing of conception.

Keywords: conception rate; fertility; temperature; weather; climate change (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J13 Q54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 26 pages
Date: 2020-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-env
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Temperature, climate change, and human conception rates: evidence from Hungary (2022)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:has:discpr:2017

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