Fetal Exposure to Abnormal Rainfall Events and Later-Life Outcomes in Colombia

This paper provides estimates of the long-term impacts of prenatal exposure to rainfall shocks using Colombian data. I find that individuals prenatally exposed to rainfall shocks have fewer years of schooling, display increased rates of illiteracy, are less likely to work in the market, and are more likely to report serious mental and physical illness. This paper then uses historical information on malaria risk and fraction of population depending on farming to analyze the extent to which agricultural income and disease shocks may be the mechanisms driving the results. The patterns I find are generally consistent with these hypotheses Acknowledgement : I appreciate support and helpful comments from Danyelle Branco, Carlos Charris, Micheliana Costa, Wescley Freitas, Wilman Iglesias, Juan Trujillo, Raul Velilla, Ian Trotter, and participants at various seminars. I am grateful to the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE) and the International Development Research Centre (Ottawa, Canada) for substantial funding for this project.