The Impact of Extreme Weather Events on Child Health: Evidence from Mongolia

Type Working Paper
Title The Impact of Extreme Weather Events on Child Health: Evidence from Mongolia
Author(s)
Publication (Day/Month/Year) 2014
URL http://econpapers.repec.org/paper/zbwvfsc14/100370.htm
Abstract
This paper investigates the impact of a devastating weather shock on child anthropometrics, using data from Mongolia. We employ a diff-in-diff strategy to single out the effect of an extremely harsh winter in 2010, which caused the death of about 20 percent of national livestock. Results indicate that cohorts of children exposed to the 2010 winter and who lived in districts in which the shock was particularly harsh are significantly shorter two years after the shock. The negative effect of the shock is strongest for children from herding households. Moreover, we explore the role of mitigation channels to cushion the impact of the weather shock. Both the amount of emergency aid delivered per district and the presence of an international organization in a given district relieves the negative impact of the shock. Similarly, households that have close ties to the local governor are better able to protect their children from the consequences of the shock. Our findings are robust to various estimation strategies and to different measures of shock intensity.

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