Dust and Death: Evidence from the West African Harmattan

Achyuta Adhvaryu, Prashant Bharadwaj, James Fenske, Anant Nyshadham and Richard Stanley

No 25937, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Using two decades of data from twelve low-income countries in West Africa, we show that dust carried by harmattan trade winds increases infant and child mortality. Health investments respond to dust exposure, consistent with compensating behaviors. Despite these efforts, surviving children still exhibit negative health impacts. Our data allow us to investigate differential impacts over time and across countries. We find declining impacts over time, suggesting adaptation. Using national-level measures of macroeconomic conditions and health resources, we find suggestive evidence that both economic development and public health improvements have contributed to this adaptation, with health improvements playing a larger role.

JEL-codes: I18 J13 O13 Q53 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev and nep-env
Note: CH DEV EEE
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (21)

Published as Achyuta Adhvaryu & Prashant Bharadwaj & James Fenske & Anant Nyshadham & Richard Stanley, 2024. "Dust and Death: Evidence from the West African Harmattan," The Economic Journal, vol 134(659), pages 885-912.

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w25937.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Dust and Death: Evidence from the West African Harmattan (2024)
Working Paper: Dust and Death: Evidence from the West African Harmattan (2016)
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:nbr:nberwo:25937

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w25937

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().