The Health Effects of Climate Change: A Survey of Recent Quantitative Research

IEFE Working Paper No. 27

48 Pages Posted: 31 Jan 2010

See all articles by Margherita Grasso

Margherita Grasso

University College London - Department of Economics

Matteo Manera

University of Milan-Bicocca, Italy - Department of Economics, Management and Statistics (DEMS); Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM), Milan, Italy

Aline Chiabai

Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM); Basque Centre for Climate Change (BC3)

Anil Markandya

Basque Centre for Climate Change (BC3); University of Bath

Date Written: January 29, 2010

Abstract

In recent years there has been a large scientific and public debate on climate change and its direct as well as indirect effects on human health. According to World Health Organization WHO, 2006), some 2.5 million people die every year from non-infectious diseases directly attributable to environmental factors such as air pollution, stressful conditions in the workplace, exposure to chemicals such as lead, and exposure to environmental tobacco smoke. Changes in climatic conditions and climate variability can also affect human health both directly and indirectly, via changes in biological and ecological processes that influence the transmission of several infectious diseases (WHO, 2003). In the past fifteen years a large amount of research on the effects of climate changes on human health has addressed two fundamental questions (WHO, 2003). First, can historical data be of some help in revealing how short-run or long-run climate variations affect the occurrence of infectious diseases? Second, is it possible to build more accurate statistical models which are capable of predicting the future effects of different climate conditions on the transmissibility of particularly dangerous infectious diseases? The primary goal of this paper is to review the most relevant contributions which have directly tackled those questions, both with respect to the effects of climate changes on the diffusion of non-infectious and infectious diseases. Specific attention will be drawn on the methodological aspects of each study, which will be classified according to the type of statistical model considered. Additional aspects such as characteristics of the dependent and independent variables, number and type of countries investigated, data frequency, temporal period spanned by the analysis, and robustness of the empirical findings are examined.

Keywords: Climate change, Health, Statistical models, Non-infectious diseases, Infectious

JEL Classification: C2, C3, I1, Q54

Suggested Citation

Grasso, Margherita and Manera, Matteo and Chiabai, Aline and Markandya, Anil, The Health Effects of Climate Change: A Survey of Recent Quantitative Research (January 29, 2010). IEFE Working Paper No. 27, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1544247 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1544247

Margherita Grasso (Contact Author)

University College London - Department of Economics ( email )

Gower Street
London
United Kingdom

Matteo Manera

University of Milan-Bicocca, Italy - Department of Economics, Management and Statistics (DEMS) ( email )

Via Bicocca degli Arcimboldi, 8
Milan, 20126
Italy
+39 02 6448 5819 (Phone)
+39 02 6448 5878 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://www.matteomanera.it

Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM), Milan, Italy ( email )

Corso Magenta, 63
Milan, 20123
Italy
+39 02 520 36944 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://www.feem.it

Aline Chiabai

Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM) ( email )

C.so Magenta 63
Milano, 20123
Italy

Basque Centre for Climate Change (BC3)

Gran Vía 35-2
Bilbao, Vizcaya 48009
Spain

Anil Markandya

Basque Centre for Climate Change (BC3)

Gran Vía 35-2
Bilbao, Vizcaya 48009
Spain

University of Bath ( email )

Claverton Down
Bath, BA2 7AY
United Kingdom

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
263
Abstract Views
1,799
Rank
211,529
PlumX Metrics