Publication: Weather and Child Health in Rural Nigeria
Date
2012-10
ISSN
Published
2012-10
Author(s)
Abstract
The effect of weather shocks on
children's anthropometrics is investigated using the
two most recent rounds of the Nigeria Demographic and Health
Survey. For this purpose, climate data for each survey
cluster are interpolated using daily weather-station records
from the national network. The findings reveal that rainfall
shocks have a statistically significant and robust impact on
child health in the short run for both weight-for-height and
height-for-age, and the incidence of diarrhea. The impacts
of weather shocks on health are of considerable magnitude;
however, children seem to catch up with their cohort rapidly
after experiencing a shock. The paper does not find any
evidence of nonlinear impacts of weather variability on
children's health, suggesting that a moderate increase
in future rainfall variability is not likely to bring
additional health costs. Finally, it appears that the impact
of these shocks is the same for young boys and girls, which
suggests that there is no gender-based discrimination in the
allocation of resources within households.
Citation
“Rabassa, Mariano; Skoufias, Emmanuel; Jacoby, Hanan G.. 2012. Weather and Child Health in Rural Nigeria. Policy Research Working Paper; No. 6214. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://openknowledge.worldbank.org/entities/publication/80f4b639-d914-57b1-9a89-65decdc788a7 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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