Mozambique and natural disasters: human capital under threat

Prado C. Alfaiate, Jorge (2009): Mozambique and natural disasters: human capital under threat.

Abstract

This paper assesses the effect of a sequence of natural disasters on children’s health that hit Mozambique at the start of the 21st Century. The disasters in question were the floods of 2000 and the droughts of the years 2002 and 2003. Height-for-age z-scores of children between 1 and 3 years old is used to capture the cumulative effects of this sequence of natural disasters. It was found that the effect of the disasters on these children’s height was, on average, -0.4236 standard deviations, which corresponds to the affected children being more than 1.5 cm shorter by the time of the survey. The findings in this paper are important because of the long term economic cost associated with the disasters, and urge the need for further public intervention to mitigate the damage caused by the shocks. This paper also contributes to the existing literature on the subject of the impact of shocks on child health in the developing world by focusing on measurement errors, differences in physical stature among ethnic groups and migratory movements.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Mozambique; Health; Natural Disaster; Human Capital; Developing Country
• Subjects: O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O1 - Economic Development; O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O1 - Economic Development > O12 - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development

References

Akresh, R and Verwimp, P. (2006), "Civil War, Crop Failure, and the Health Status of Young Children," Households in Conflict Network Working Paper Series, No. 19, 2006.

Alderman, H.; Hoddinott, J. And Kinsey, B. (2004), "Long Term Consequences Of Early Childhood Malnutrition", Households in Conflict Network Working Paper Series, No. 09, 2004.

Almond, D.; Edlund, L.; Li, H. and Zhang, J. (2007), "Long-Term effects of the 1959-1961 China Famine: Mainland China and Hong Kong", National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series, No. 13384, September 2007.

Almond, D; Hoynes, H. W. and Whitmore Schanzenbach, D. (2008)"The Impact of the Food Stamp Program on Infant Outcomes", National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series, No. 14306, June 2008.

Angrist, J. D. and Pischke, J-S. (2009) Mostly Harmless Econometrics, An Empiricist’s Companion, 1st ed., New Jersey, Princeton University Press.

Ashenfelter, O. and Card, D. (1985), "Using the Longitudinal Structure of Earnings to Estimate the Effect of Training Programs," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, 67(4), pp. 648-60.

Ashworth, A. (1969), “Growth rates in Children Recovering From Protein-Calorie Malnitrition”, British Journal of Nutrition, 23, pp. 835-845.

Case, A.; Lubotsky, D.; Paxson, C. (2002), "Economic Status and Health in Childhood: The Origins of the Gradient", The American Economic Review, December 2002, 92(5), pp. 1308-1334

Case, A. and Paxson, C. (2006), “Stature and Status: Height, Ability, and Labor Market Outcomes”, National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series, No. 12466, August 2006.

Case, A. and Paxson, C., Mahnaz, I. (2008), “Making Sense of the Labor Market Height Premium:Evidence from the British Household panel Survey”, National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series, No.14007, May 2008.

Cordeiro, R. (2009), “Uganda Conflicts and the Effects on Children’s Malnutrition: Diverse Approaches”, Department of Economics, London School of Economics and Political Science, MSc dissertation, In Press, May 2009.

Currie, J. and Stabile, M. (2003), "Socioeconomic Status and Child Health: Why Is the Relationship Stronger for Older Children?", The American Economic Review, December 2003, 93(5), pp. 1813-1823.

Dehejia, R.H. and Lleras-Muney, A. (2004), “Booms, Busts, and Babies’Health”, Quaterley Journal of Economics, 119(3), pp. 1091-1130.

del Ninno,C. and Lundberg, M.(2005), “Treading Water: The Long-Term Impact of the 1998 Flood on Nutrition in Bangladesh”, Economics and Human Biology. 3(1), pp. 67-96, March 2005.

Duflo, E. (2003), "Grandmothers and Granddaughters: Old-Age Pensions and Intrahousehold Allocation in South Africa," World Bank Economic Review, 17(1), pp 1-25, June 2003.

Ferreira, F. And Schady, N. (2008), “Aggregate Economic Shocks, Child Schooling and Child Health”, The World Bank Policy Research Working Paper Series No. 4701, August 2008.

Jensen, R. (2000), “Agricultural Volatility and Investments in Children”, American Economic Review, 90(2), pp. 399-404, Link, C. (2005) "Why Does the Relationship between Economic Status and Child Health Strengthen for Older Children in the U.S.? Evidence from the Medical Expenditures Panel Survey and the Panel Study of Income Dynamics", Alfred Lerner College of Business & Economics University of Delaware Economics Working paper Series,No.2005-18.

Maccini, S. And Dean Yang (2008), “Under the Weather:Health, Schooling and Economic Consequences of Early-Life Rainfall”, Forthcoming, American Economic Review.

Marmot, M. and Wilkinson R. G., (2003), Social determinants of health, the Solid Facts, , 2nd ed, Copenhagen, Oxford University Press.

Martorell, R. And Habitch, J. P. (1986), “Growth in Early Childhood in Developing Countries” In Human Growth: A Comprehensive Treatis, ed. F. Falkner and J. M. Tanner, 2 ed., Plenum Press, New York.

Mozambique News Agency, (2000), “Government Updates Assembly on Floods”, <http://www.poptel.org.uk/mozambique-news/newsletter/aim180.html#story1>, April 2000.

Mozambique News Agency, (2003), “Hunger warning as rainfall hits 50 year low”, <http://www.poptel.org.uk/mozambique-news/newsletter/aim249.html#story1>, March 2003.

Muanamoha, R. C. (2007), “Dinamica Social da Migração Laboral Não-Documentada para a Africa do Sul”, Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, Apresentações de Trabalho.

O Oucho, J., (2007), “Migration in South Africa, Migration Management Initiatives for SADC Member States”, Institute for Security Studies Paper Series, No. 157, December 2007.

Strauss, J. And Duncan, T. (1998), “Health, Nutrition and Economic Development”, Journal of Economic Literature, 36(2), pp.766-817, June 1998.

UNDP (2005), “Report on the Millenium Development Goals Republic of Mozambique”, Millenium Development Goals Report Series, <http://www.undg.org/archive_docs/6958- Mozambique_Second_MDG_Report.pdf>, August 2005.

UNDP (2006), “Country Evaluation: Assesment of Development Results Mozambique”, Assessment of Development Results Reports Series, New York, United States of America.

UNDP (2006), Mozambique country brief, http://www.undp.org.mz/en/publications/publications/mozambique_country_brief, February 2006.

Van Den Berg G. J.; Lindeboom, M and Portrait, F. (2006), “ Economic Conditions Early in Life and Individual Mortality”, The American Economic Review, 96(1), pp.290-302. March 2006.

WHO, Working Group (1986), “Use and Interpretation of anthropometrics indicators of nutritional status”, Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 64(6), pp. 929-941.

WHO (1995), “Physical Status: The Use and Interpretation of Anthropometry”, WHO technical report series No. 854.

Wooldridge , J. (2002), Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data, Massachussets Institute of Technology, United States of America, 2002.