Mitigating Long-Run Health Effects of Drought: Evidence from South Africa
57 Pages Posted: 2 Jun 2014
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Mitigating Long-Run Health Effects of Drought: Evidence from South Africa
Date Written: February 2014
Abstract
Drought is Africas primary natural disaster and a pervasive source of income risk for poor households. This paper documents the long-run health effects of early life exposure to drought and investigates an important source of heterogeneity in these effects. Combining birth cohort variation in South African Census data with cross-sectional and temporal drought variation, I estimate long-run health impacts of drought exposure among Africans confined to homelands during apartheid. Drought exposure in early childhood significantly raises later life male disability rates by 4% and reduces cohort size. Among a subset of homelands the TBVC areas disability effects are double and negative cohort effects are significantly larger. I show that differences in spatial mobility restrictions that influence the extent of migrant networks across TBVC and non-TBVC areas contribute to this heterogeneity. Placebo checks show no differential disability impacts of drought exposure across TBVC and non-TBVC areas after the repeal of migration restrictions. The results show that although drought has significant long-run effects on health human capital, migrant networks in poor economies provide one channel through which families mitigate these negative impacts of local environmental shock
Keywords: disability and early life health, drought, local shocks, migration, South Africa
JEL Classification: I15, J61, N37, O15
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