IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/chieco/v79y2023ics1043951x2300038x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Effects of temperature on mental health: Evidence and mechanisms from China

Author

Listed:
  • Hou, Junjun
  • Wang, Chenggang
  • Wang, Huixia
  • Zhang, Peng

Abstract

We study how temperature exposure affects mental health in a developing country using data from China Family Panel Studies (CFPS). We find that exposure to high temperatures leads to worse mental health. Specifically, one additional day above 27 °C during the past week would increase individuals' total CESD 8 score by 1.5%, and the likelihood of having severe mental illness by 6.2% relative to a day in the reference temperature bin. We further estimate the potential mitigating effects of air conditioning on the relationship between temperature and mental health. We find that the identified relationship is mitigated by installing air conditioning. We also test some mechanisms through which temperature might impact mental health, including physical health status and sleep. We further discuss the overall health expenditure burden associated with climate change.

Suggested Citation

  • Hou, Junjun & Wang, Chenggang & Wang, Huixia & Zhang, Peng, 2023. "Effects of temperature on mental health: Evidence and mechanisms from China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:chieco:v:79:y:2023:i:c:s1043951x2300038x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.chieco.2023.101953
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1043951X2300038X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.chieco.2023.101953?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Temperature; Mental health; Climate change; Adaptation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • I14 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health and Inequality
    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming

    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:eee:chieco:v:79:y:2023:i:c:s1043951x2300038x. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/chieco .

    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.