Under the Weather: Health, Schooling, and Economic Consequences of Early-Life Rainfall

32 Pages Posted: 2 Jun 2008

See all articles by Sharon Maccini

Sharon Maccini

Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy

Dean Yang

University of Michigan at Ann Arbor - Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); University of Michigan at Ann Arbor - Department of Economics

Date Written: May 2008

Abstract

How sensitive is long-run individual well-being to environmental conditions early in life? This paper examines the effect of weather conditions around the time of birth on the health, education, and socioeconomic outcomes of Indonesian adults born between 1953 and 1974. We link historical rainfall for each individual's birth-year and birth-location with current adult outcomes from the 2000 wave of the Indonesia Family Life Survey. Higher early-life rainfall has large positive effects on the adult outcomes of women, but not of men. Women with 20% higher rainfall (relative to normal local rainfall) in their year and location of birth are 3.8 percentage points less likely to self-report poor or very poor health, attain 0.57 centimeters greater height, complete 0.22 more grades of schooling, and live in households that score 0.12 standard deviations higher on an asset index. These patterns most plausibly reflect a positive impact of rainfall on agricultural output, leading to higher household incomes and food availability and better health for infant girls. We present suggestive evidence that eventual benefits for adult women's socioeconomic status are most strongly mediated by improved schooling attainment, which in turn improves socioeconomic status in adulthood.

JEL Classification: I1, I2, I3, O1, O15, Q5

Suggested Citation

Maccini, Sharon and Yang, Dean and Yang, Dean, Under the Weather: Health, Schooling, and Economic Consequences of Early-Life Rainfall (May 2008). NBER Working Paper No. W14031, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1139347

Sharon Maccini

Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy ( email )

735 South State Street, Weill Hall
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Dean Yang (Contact Author)

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
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University of Michigan at Ann Arbor - Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy ( email )

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HOME PAGE: http://www.umich.edu/~deanyang/

University of Michigan at Ann Arbor - Department of Economics

611 Tappan Street
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1220
United States

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