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  4. June 2009
  5. Under the Weather: Health, Schooling, and Economic Consequences of Early-Life Rainfall

American Economic Review

ISSN 0002-8282 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7981 (Online)

Under the Weather: Health, Schooling, and Economic Consequences of Early-Life Rainfall

  • Sharon Maccini
  • Dean Yang
American Economic Review
vol. 99, no. 3, June 2009
(pp. 1006–26)
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Abstract

We examine the effect of early-life rainfall on the health, education, and socioeconomic outcomes of Indonesian adults. We link historical rainfall for each individual's birth year and birth location with adult outcomes from the 2000 Indonesia Family Life Survey (IFLS). Higher early-life rainfall has large positive effects on the adult outcomes of women, but not of men. Women with 20 percent higher rainfall (relative to the local norm) are 0.57 centimeters taller, complete 0.22 more schooling grades, and live in households scoring 0.12 standard deviations higher on an asset index. Schooling attainment appears to mediate the impact on adult women's socioeconomic status. (JEL I12, I21, J16, O15)

Citation

Maccini, Sharon, and Dean Yang. 2009. "Under the Weather: Health, Schooling, and Economic Consequences of Early-Life Rainfall." American Economic Review, 99 (3): 1006–26. DOI: 10.1257/aer.99.3.1006

Additional Materials

JEL Classification

  • I12 Health Production
  • I21 Analysis of Education
  • J16 Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
  • O15 Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration