The Impacts of Hurricane Mitch on Child Health: Evidence from Nicaragua

By taking a rare opportunity to have both pre- and post-disaster survey data in Nicaragua in 1998 and 2001, we estimate the direct impacts of Hurricane Mitch on long-term child health status, measured in height-for-age z-scores, in the pooled cross section model. Especially, we focus on children who were younger than 2.5 years old at the time of Hurricane Mitch because the previous studies show that children under two to three years old are especially vulnerable to shocks. The results indicate that, in the 2001 survey, more than two years after experiencing Hurricane Mitch, children who were younger than 2.5 years old at the time of Hurricane Mitch have 0.35 points lower HAZ-scores and have 6.6 percent higher probability of stunting than expected. Although the poor health status of these children could not be attributed entirely to Hurricane Mitch, we suspect that it is one of the main factors. The results suggest the importance of safety nets programs to mitigate negative impacts on child health in their early childhood.