Heat Exposure and Children's Nutrition: Evidence from West Africa

Abstract

Growing evidence indicates extreme weather affects a variety of economic indicators. However, there is no evidence connecting temperature shocks to children’s nutritional status, an important predictor of economic outcomes in adulthood. Linking 15 rounds of repeated cross-section data from five West African countries to geo-coded weather data, we find that extreme heat exposure increases the prevalence of both chronic and acute malnutrition. Our results indicate that a 2°C rise in temperature will increase the prevalence of stunting by 3.9 percentage points in our study sample, reversing more than half of the progress made on improving nutrition during our study period.

Keywords: Child nutrition, temperature, climate change, West Africa

JEL Classification: I15, O10, Q54