IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ebl/ecbull/eb-22-00474.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Hidden costs of industrial disasters: Marriage market consequences of the Bhopal Gas Disaster

Author

Listed:
  • Shreyasee Das

    (Temple University)

  • Shatanjaya Dasgupta

    (Providence College)

Abstract

This paper examines the marriage market consequences of one of the world's deadliest industrial disasters, the 1984 Bhopal Gas Disaster in India. The gas leak resulted in casualties of upwards of 3,000 people and affected over 500,000 people. Using the 2015-16 National Family and Health Survey (NFHS) and a difference-in-difference (DID) strategy, we find that the Bhopal Gas Disaster reduced marriage rates of men and increased the age at marriage for those men who were able to get married. These results are driven by the negative health and employment outcomes of men exposed to the disaster. Additionally, we examine the quality of matches and find a decrease in the spousal educational gap and an increased likelihood of men being matched with women with similar adverse health issues. Our results highlight far-reaching demographic effects beyond the detrimental health effects resulting from industrial disasters.

Suggested Citation

  • Shreyasee Das & Shatanjaya Dasgupta, 2023. "Hidden costs of industrial disasters: Marriage market consequences of the Bhopal Gas Disaster," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 43(2), pages 813-829.
    • Handle: RePEc:ebl:ecbull:eb-22-00474
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.accessecon.com/Pubs/EB/2023/Volume43/EB-23-V43-I2-P66.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Douglas Almond & Lena Edlund & Mårten Palme, 2009. "Chernobyl's Subclinical Legacy: Prenatal Exposure to Radioactive Fallout and School Outcomes in Sweden," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 124(4), pages 1729-1772.
    2. Loren Brandt & Aloysius Siow & Carl Vogel, 2016. "Large Demographic Shocks And Small Changes In The Marriage Market," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 14(6), pages 1437-1468, December.
    3. Shreyasee Das & Shatanjaya Dasgupta, 2019. "Marriage Market Responses in the Wake of a Natural Disaster in India," DETU Working Papers 1902, Department of Economics, Temple University.
    4. Douglas Almond & Lena Edlund & Hongbin Li & Junsen Zhang, 2007. "Long-Term Effects Of The 1959-1961 China Famine: Mainland China and Hong Kong," NBER Working Papers 13384, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Nina Buchmann & Erica M. Field & Rachel Glennerster & Shahana Nazneen & Xiao Yu Wang, 2021. "A Signal to End Child Marriage: Theory and Experimental Evidence from Bangladesh," NBER Working Papers 29052, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Arindam Nandi & Sumit Mazumdar & Jere R. Behrman, 2018. "The effect of natural disaster on fertility, birth spacing, and child sex ratio: evidence from a major earthquake in India," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 31(1), pages 267-293, January.
    7. Lehmann, Hartmut & Wadsworth, Jonathan, 2011. "The impact of Chernobyl on health and labour market performance," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 843-857.
    8. Maksim Yemelyanau & Aliaksandr Amialchuk & Mir Ali, 2012. "Evidence from the Chernobyl Nuclear Accident: The Effect on Health, Education, and Labor Market Outcomes in Belarus," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 33(1), pages 1-20, March.
    9. Maksim Yemelyanau & Aliaksandr Amialchuk & Mir Ali, 2012. "Erratum to: Evidence from the Chernobyl Nuclear Accident: The Effect on Health, Education, and Labor Market Outcomes in Belarus," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 33(2), pages 283-283, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gabriella Conti, 2013. "The Developmental Origins of Health Inequality," Research on Economic Inequality, in: Health and Inequality, volume 21, pages 285-309, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    2. Elsner, Benjamin & Wozny, Florian, 2023. "Long-run exposure to low-dose radiation reduces cognitive performance," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    3. Shreyasee Das & Shatanjaya Dasgupta, 2019. "Marriage Market Responses in the Wake of a Natural Disaster in India," DETU Working Papers 1902, Department of Economics, Temple University.
    4. Fink, Alexander & Stratmann, Thomas, 2015. "U.S. housing prices and the Fukushima nuclear accident," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 309-326.
    5. Das Gupta, Monica & Ebenstein, Avraham & Sharygin, Ethan Jennings, 2010. "China's marriage market and upcoming challenges for elderly men," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5351, The World Bank.
    6. Pinna Pintor, Matteo & Fumagalli, Elena & Suhrcke, Marc, 2024. "The impact of health on labour market outcomes: A rapid systematic review," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    7. Fletcher, Jason M., 2018. "The effects of in utero exposure to the 1918 influenza pandemic on family formation," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 59-68.
    8. Danzer, Alexander M. & Danzer, Natalia, 2011. "The Long-Term Effects of the Chernobyl Catastrophe on Subjective Well-Being and Mental Health," IZA Discussion Papers 5906, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. Sandra E Black & Paul J Devereux & Kjell G Salvanes, 2014. "Does Grief Transfer across Generations? - In-Utero Deaths and Child Outcomes," Working Papers 201405, School of Economics, University College Dublin.
    10. Elsner, Benjamin & Wozny, Florian, 2018. "The Human Capital Cost of Radiation: Long-Run Evidence from Exposure Outside the Womb," IZA Discussion Papers 11408, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Yamamura, Eiji, 2016. "Impact of the Fukushima nuclear accident on obesity of children in Japan (2008–2014)," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 21(C), pages 110-121.
    12. Anna Aizer & Laura Stroud & Stephen Buka, 2016. "Maternal Stress and Child Outcomes: Evidence from Siblings," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 51(3), pages 523-555.
    13. Sanders, Nicholas J. & Stoecker, Charles, 2015. "Where have all the young men gone? Using sex ratios to measure fetal death rates," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 30-45.
    14. Christine Valente, 2011. "Children of the Revolution: Fetal and Child Health amidst Violent Civil Conflict," Working Papers 2011018, The University of Sheffield, Department of Economics.
    15. Alexander Fink & Thomas Stratmann, 2013. "U.S. housing prices and the Fukushima nuclear accident: To update, or not to update, that is the question," ICER Working Papers 04-2013, ICER - International Centre for Economic Research.
    16. Meyers, Keith A., 2017. "In the Shadow of the Mushroom Cloud: Nuclear Testing, Radioactive Fallout and Damage to U.S. Agriculture," 2017 Annual Meeting, July 30-August 1, Chicago, Illinois 258121, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    17. Yamamura, Eiji, 2013. "Impact of the Fukushima nuclear accident on the body mass index of students in Japan," MPRA Paper 43920, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Hilary Hoynes & Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach & Douglas Almond, 2016. "Long-Run Impacts of Childhood Access to the Safety Net," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(4), pages 903-934, April.
    19. Sotomayor, Orlando, 2013. "Fetal and infant origins of diabetes and ill health: Evidence from Puerto Rico's 1928 and 1932 hurricanes," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 11(3), pages 281-293.
    20. Alistair Munro, 2012. "Fukushima Dai-Ichi and the Economics of Nuclear Decontamination," GRIPS Discussion Papers 12-01, National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Bhopal Gas Disaster; India; marriage; health effects; industrial disaster;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J1 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics
    • D1 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ebl:ecbull:eb-22-00474. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: John P. Conley (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.