IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp12649.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Extreme Weather and Long-term Health: Evidence from Two Millennia of Chinese Elites

Author

Listed:
  • Lee, Wang-Sheng

    (Monash University)

  • Li, Ben G.

    (University of Massachusetts Lowell)

Abstract

Modern technology empowers human beings to cope with various extreme weather events. Using Chinese historical data, we examine the impact of extreme weather on long-term human health in an environment where individuals have no access to modern technology. By combining life course data on 5,000 Chinese elites with historical weather data over the period 1-1840 AD, we find a significant and robust negative impact of droughts in childhood on the longevity of elites. Quantitatively, encountering three years of droughts in childhood reduces an elite's life span by about two years. A remarkably important channel of the childhood drought effect is the deterioration of economic conditions caused by droughts.

Suggested Citation

  • Lee, Wang-Sheng & Li, Ben G., 2019. "Extreme Weather and Long-term Health: Evidence from Two Millennia of Chinese Elites," IZA Discussion Papers 12649, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp12649
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp12649.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ruixue Jia, 2014. "Weather Shocks, Sweet Potatoes and Peasant Revolts in Historical China," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 124(575), pages 92-118, March.
    2. Sharon Maccini & Dean Yang, 2009. "Under the Weather: Health, Schooling, and Economic Consequences of Early-Life Rainfall," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 99(3), pages 1006-1026, June.
    3. Gerard J. van den Berg & Pia R. Pinger & Johannes Schoch, 2016. "Instrumental Variable Estimation of the Causal Effect of Hunger Early in Life on Health Later in Life," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 126(591), pages 465-506, March.
    4. Carol H. Shiue, 2017. "Human capital and fertility in Chinese clans before modern growth," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 22(4), pages 351-396, December.
    5. Hyland, Marie & Russ, Jason, 2019. "Water as destiny – The long-term impacts of drought in sub-Saharan Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 30-45.
    6. Broadberry, Stephen & Guan, Hanhui & Li, David Daokui, 2018. "China, Europe, and the Great Divergence: A Study in Historical National Accounting, 980–1850," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 78(4), pages 955-1000, December.
    7. Melissa Dell & Benjamin F. Jones & Benjamin A. Olken, 2014. "What Do We Learn from the Weather? The New Climate-Economy Literature," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 52(3), pages 740-798, September.
    8. Alison Comfort, 2016. "Long-term effect of in utero conditions on maternal survival later in life: evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 29(2), pages 493-527, April.
    9. Olivier Deschênes & Michael Greenstone, 2011. "Climate Change, Mortality, and Adaptation: Evidence from Annual Fluctuations in Weather in the US," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 3(4), pages 152-185, October.
    10. Carol H. SHIUE, 2016. "A Culture of Kinship: Chinese Genealogies as a Souce for Research in Demographic Economics," JODE - Journal of Demographic Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 82(4), pages 459-482, December.
    11. Arthi, Vellore, 2018. "“The Dust Was Long in Settling”: Human Capital and the Lasting Impact of the American Dust Bowl," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 78(1), pages 196-230, March.
    12. Alison B. Comfort, 2016. "Long-term effect of in utero conditions on maternal survival later in life: evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 29(2), pages 493-527, April.
    13. Qian, Nancy & ,, 2006. "The Long Run Health and Economic Consequences of Famine on Survivors: Evidence from China's Great Famine," CEPR Discussion Papers 5989, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    14. van den Berg, Gerard J. & Doblhammer, Gabriele & Christensen, Kaare, 2009. "Exogenous determinants of early-life conditions, and mortality later in life," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(9), pages 1591-1598, May.
    15. Chen, Yuyu & Zhou, Li-An, 2007. "The long-term health and economic consequences of the 1959-1961 famine in China," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(4), pages 659-681, July.
    16. Olukorede Abiona, 2017. "Adverse Effects of Early Life Extreme Precipitation Shocks on Short-term Health and Adulthood Welfare Outcomes," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(4), pages 1229-1254, November.
    17. Taryn Dinkelman, 2017. "Long‐Run Health Repercussions of Drought Shocks: Evidence from South African Homelands," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 127(604), pages 1906-1939.
    18. Song, Shige, 2010. "Mortality consequences of the 1959-1961 Great Leap Forward famine in China: Debilitation, selection, and mortality crossovers," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(3), pages 551-558, August.
    19. Duque, Valentina & Rosales-Rueda, Maria & Sanchez, Fabio, 2019. "How Do Early-Life Shocks Interact with Subsequent Human Capital Investments? Evidence from Administrative Data," Working Papers 2019-17, University of Sydney, School of Economics.
    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. Lee, Wang-Sheng & Li, Ben G., 2021. "Extreme weather and mortality: Evidence from two millennia of Chinese elites," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    2. Hyland, Marie & Russ, Jason, 2019. "Water as destiny – The long-term impacts of drought in sub-Saharan Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 30-45.
    3. Mochamad Pasha & Marc Rockmore & Chih Ming Tan & Dhanushka Thamarapani, 2023. "Early Life Exposure to Above Average Rainfall and Adult Mental Health," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 85(4), pages 692-717, August.
    4. Li, Xue & Smyth, Russell & Yao, Yao, 2023. "Extreme temperatures and out-of-pocket medical expenditure: Evidence from China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    5. Wilde, Joshua & Apouey, Bénédicte H. & Jung, Toni, 2017. "The effect of ambient temperature shocks during conception and early pregnancy on later life outcomes," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 87-107.
    6. Farris, Jarrad G. & Jin, Songqing & Maredia, Mywish K. & Porter, Maria, 2018. "Assessing Heterogeneity in the Child Growth Impacts of In-Utero Rainfall Shocks in Rural Rwanda," 2018 Annual Meeting, August 5-7, Washington, D.C. 274230, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    7. Ball, Alastair, 2014. "Air pollution, foetal mortality, and long-term health: Evidence from the Great London Smog," MPRA Paper 63229, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 25 Mar 2015.
    8. Josephat J. Hongoli & Youjin Hahn, 2023. "Early life exposure to cold weather shocks and growth stunting: Evidence from Tanzania," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(12), pages 2855-2879, December.
    9. Xi Chen & Chih Ming Tan & Xiaobo Zhang & Xin Zhang, 2020. "The effects of prenatal exposure to temperature extremes on birth outcomes: the case of China," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 33(4), pages 1263-1302, October.
    10. Zhang, Shaohui & Guo, Qinxin & Smyth, Russell & Yao, Yao, 2022. "Extreme temperatures and residential electricity consumption: Evidence from Chinese households," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    11. Janet Currie & Tom Vogl, 2013. "Early-Life Health and Adult Circumstance in Developing Countries," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 5(1), pages 1-36, May.
    12. Díaz, Juan-José & Saldarriaga, Victor, 2023. "A drop of love? Rainfall shocks and spousal abuse: Evidence from rural Peru," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    13. Baez, Javier E., 2011. "Civil wars beyond their borders: The human capital and health consequences of hosting refugees," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(2), pages 391-408, November.
    14. Guimbeau, Amanda & Ji, Xinde James & Long, Zi & Menon, Nidhiya, 2024. "Ocean salinity, early-life health, and adaptation," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    15. Manuela K. Fritz, 2021. "Temperature and non-communicable diseases: Evidence from Indonesia's primary health care system," Working Papers 206, Bavarian Graduate Program in Economics (BGPE).
    16. Joshua Wilde & Benedicte Apouey & Toni Jung, 2014. "Heat Waves at Conception and Later Life Outcomes," Working Papers 0514, University of South Florida, Department of Economics.
    17. Bassino, Jean-Pascal & Lagoarde-Segot, Thomas & Woitek, Ulrich, 2020. "The irreversible welfare cost of climate anomalies. Evidence from Japan (1872-1917)," Discussion Paper Series 704, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
    18. 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.
    19. Gerard J. van den Berg & Pia R. Pinger & Johannes Schoch, 2016. "Instrumental Variable Estimation of the Causal Effect of Hunger Early in Life on Health Later in Life," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 126(591), pages 465-506, March.
    20. Olukorede Abiona, 2017. "Adverse Effects of Early Life Extreme Precipitation Shocks on Short-term Health and Adulthood Welfare Outcomes," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(4), pages 1229-1254, November.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    elites; longevity; weather; early-life conditions; history of China;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I15 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health and Economic Development
    • N35 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - Asia including Middle East

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:iza:izadps:dp12649. 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: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.html .

    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.