IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ucp/ecdecc/doi10.1086-689308.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Monsoon Babies: Rainfall Shocks and Child Nutrition in Nepal

Author

Listed:
  • Sailesh Tiwari
  • Hanan G. Jacoby
  • Emmanuel Skoufias

Abstract

Do household consumption-smoothing strategies in poor countries entail significant long-run costs in terms of reduced human capital? We exploit the timing of monsoon rainfall shocks and the seasonal nature of agriculture to isolate income effects on early childhood anthropometric outcomes in rural Nepal and to provide evidence on the persistence of these effects into later childhood. We find that a 10% increase in rainfall from historic norms during the most recently completed monsoon leads to a 0.13 standard deviation increase in weight for height for children age 0–60 months. This total impact consists of a negative “disease environment effect” of no more than 0.04 standard deviations and a positive “income effect” as high as 0.17 standard deviations. Consistent with this interpretation, excess monsoon rainfall also enhances child stature but only if the monsoon rainfall shock is experienced in the second year of life. Moreover, this effect on child height is transitory, dissipating completely by age 5.

Suggested Citation

  • Sailesh Tiwari & Hanan G. Jacoby & Emmanuel Skoufias, 2017. "Monsoon Babies: Rainfall Shocks and Child Nutrition in Nepal," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 65(2), pages 167-188.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucp:ecdecc:doi:10.1086/689308
    DOI: 10.1086/689308
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/689308
    Download Restriction: Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.
    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/689308
    Download Restriction: Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1086/689308?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 look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. 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.
    2. Mariano Rabassa & Emmanuel Skoufias & Hanan Jacoby, 2014. "Weather and Child Health in Rural Nigeria," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 23(4), pages 464-492.
    3. Nidhiya Menon, 2009. "Rainfall Uncertainty and Occupational Choice in Agricultural Households of Rural Nepal," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(6), pages 864-888.
    4. Outes, Ingo & Porter, Catherine, 2013. "Catching up from early nutritional deficits? Evidence from rural Ethiopia," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 11(2), pages 148-163.
    5. Elaina Rose, 1999. "Consumption Smoothing and Excess Female Mortality in Rural India," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 81(1), pages 41-49, February.
    6. Foster, Andrew D, 1995. "Prices, Credit Markets and Child Growth in Low-Income Rural Areas," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 105(430), pages 551-570, May.
    7. Subha Mani, 2012. "Is there Complete, Partial, or No Recovery from Childhood Malnutrition? – Empirical Evidence from Indonesia," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 74(5), pages 691-715, October.
    8. Glewwe, Paul & Miguel, Edward A., 2008. "The Impact of Child Health and Nutrition on Education in Less Developed Countries," Handbook of Development Economics, in: T. Paul Schultz & John A. Strauss (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 56, pages 3561-3606, Elsevier.
    9. HwaJung Choi, 2007. "Are Remittances Insurance? Evidence from Rainfall Shocks in the Philippines," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 21(2), pages 219-248, May.
    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. Safir, Abla & Piza, Sharon Faye & Skoufias, Emmanuel, 2013. "Disquiet on the weather front : the welfare impacts of climatic variability in the rural Philippines," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6579, The World Bank.
    2. Shawn Cole & Xavier Gine & Jeremy Tobacman & Petia Topalova & Robert Townsend & James Vickery, 2013. "Barriers to Household Risk Management: Evidence from India," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 5(1), pages 104-135, January.
    3. Subha Mani, 2014. "Socioeconomic Determinants of Child Health: Empirical Evidence from Indonesia," Asian Economic Journal, East Asian Economic Association, vol. 28(1), pages 81-104, March.
    4. Minoiu, Camelia & Shemyakina, Olga N., 2014. "Armed conflict, household victimization, and child health in Côte d'Ivoire," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 237-255.
    5. Darrouzet-Nardi, Amelia & Masters, William, 2015. "Nutrition smoothing: Can access to towns and cities protect children against poor health conditions at birth?," 2015 Conference, August 9-14, 2015, Milan, Italy 211558, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    6. Lohmann, Steffen & Lechtenfeld, Tobias, 2015. "The Effect of Drought on Health Outcomes and Health Expenditures in Rural Vietnam," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 432-448.
    7. Skoufias, Emmanuel & Vinha, Katja, 2012. "Climate variability and child height in rural Mexico," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 10(1), pages 54-73.
    8. Björkman-Nyqvist, Martina, 2013. "Income shocks and gender gaps in education: Evidence from Uganda," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 237-253.
    9. Alejandro de la Fuente, 2007. "Climate Shocks and their Impact on Assets," Human Development Occasional Papers (1992-2007) HDOCPA-2007-23, Human Development Report Office (HDRO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
    10. Mu, Ren & Zhang, Xiaobo, 2011. "Why does the Great Chinese Famine affect the male and female survivors differently? Mortality selection versus son preference," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 92-105, January.
    11. David I. Levine & Dean Yang, 2014. "The Impact of Rainfall on Rice Output in Indonesia," NBER Working Papers 20302, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Debebe,Zelalem Yilma & Raju,Dhushyanth, 2020. "Covariate Shocks and Child Undernutrition : A Review of Evidence from Low- and Middle-Income Countries," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9273, The World Bank.
    13. Carletto, Calogero & Maluccio, John A. & Shrestha, Savant Man & Stewart, Mackenzie F., 2021. "Migration, economic crisis and child growth in rural Guatemala: Insights from the Great Recession," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    14. Kathleen Beegle & Rajeev Dehejia & Roberta Gatti, 2003. "Child Labor, Crop Shocks, and Credit Constraints," NBER Working Papers 10088, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Akresh, Richard & Lucchetti, Leonardo & Thirumurthy, Harsha, 2012. "Wars and child health: Evidence from the Eritrean–Ethiopian conflict," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(2), pages 330-340.
    16. 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.
    17. María Fernanda Rosales, 2014. "Impact of Early Life Shocks on Human Capital Formation: El Niño Floods in Ecuador," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 87693, Inter-American Development Bank.
    18. Andrea Cinque & Lennart Reiners, 2022. "Confined to Stay: Natural Disasters and Indonesia's Migration Ban," CESifo Working Paper Series 9837, CESifo.
    19. Shawn Cole & Xavier Giné & James Vickery, 2017. "How Does Risk Management Influence Production Decisions? Evidence from a Field Experiment," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 30(6), pages 1935-1970.
    20. Subha Mani, 2012. "Is there Complete, Partial, or No Recovery from Childhood Malnutrition? – Empirical Evidence from Indonesia," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 74(5), pages 691-715, October.

    More about this item

    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:ucp:ecdecc:doi:10.1086/689308. 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: Journals Division (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/EDCC .

    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.