Climate change

Sociology

Meteorology

Pediatrics

Child health

Extreme heat

Economic growth

Biology

Demography

Economics

Geography

Ecology

Extreme weather

Cold weather

Malnutrition

Medicine

Environmental health

Journal of Environmental Economics and Management

Extreme heat shocks are increasingly linked to poor economic and health outcomes. This paper constructs hour-degree bins of temperature exposure to assess the effects of extreme heat on early child nutrition, a health outcome correlated with educational attainment and income in adulthood. Linking 15 rounds of repeated cross-section data from five West African countries to geo-coded weather data, we find that extreme heat exposure increases the prevalence of both chronic and acute malnutrition. We find that a 2 °C rise in temperature will increase the prevalence of stunting by 7.4 percentage points, reversing the progress made on improving nutrition during our study period.

Heat exposure and child nutrition: Evidence from West Africa