The Effects of Prenatal Exposure to Temperature Extremes on Birth Outcomes

Xi Chen, Chih Ming Tan, Xiaobo Zhang and Xin Zhang

No 12917, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This paper investigates the effects of prenatal exposure to extreme temperatures on birth outcomes – specifically, the log of birth weight and an indicator for low birth weight – using a nationally representative dataset in rural China. During the span of our data (i.e., 1991–2000), indoor air-conditioning was not widely available and migration was limited, allowing us to address identification issues endemic in the climate change literature related to adaptation and location sorting. We find substantial heterogeneity in the effects of extreme temperature exposure on birth outcomes. In particular, prenatal exposure to heat waves has stronger negative effects than exposure to cold spells on survivors.

Keywords: low birth weight; birth weight; heat waves; cold weather; climate change; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I15 Q51 Q54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 48 pages
Date: 2020-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-cna, nep-env and nep-res
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (20)

Published - published in: Journal of Population Economics, 2020, 33, 1263 - 1302

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp12917.pdf (application/pdf)

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:iza:izadps:dp12917

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
IZA, Margard Ody, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) IZA, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Holger Hinte ().