Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP15680
Authors: Alex Armand; Ivan Kim Taveras
Abstract: Twenty percent of the world population depend on wildlife for income and food. We show how exogenous variation in the wealth of marine wildlife shapes human and economic development. For the period 1972–2018, we analyze half a million adult women and 1.5 million live births in 36 low- and middle-income countries. We document how short-run deteriorations near human settlements cause diets to be poorer in nutrients, increasing malnutrition among the most vulnerable population, pregnant women. These shocks have negative impacts on their children. When deteriorations are experienced in utero, they increase mortality, worsen physical development, and have long-lasting effects on economic well-being. Shocks operate in an unobserved way as parents do not raise health investments. Effects are larger in areas that are more dependent on marine resources and where overfishing depletes them.
Keywords: Child; Climate Change; Economic Development; Health; Mortality; Natural Resource; Ocean; Renewable Resource
JEL Codes: I15; Q20; Q54; O10
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| negative shocks to marine resource wealth (Q33) | reduction in seafood consumption among pregnant women (Q22) |
| reduction in seafood consumption among pregnant women (Q22) | increase in prevalence of anemia (O15) |
| negative shocks to marine resource wealth (Q33) | increase in neonatal mortality rates (J13) |
| lower pH levels (Q53) | poorer nutritional outcomes (I32) |
| lower resource wealth (Q32) | nutrient intake (particularly iron) (I14) |
| negative shocks to marine resource wealth (Q33) | adverse outcomes for children (J13) |
| negative shocks to marine resource wealth (Q33) | increased mortality rates among children (J13) |
| shocks operate independently of household income changes (G59) | effects are driven by composition of available seafood (Q22) |
| overexploitation exacerbates negative consequences of resource shocks (Q33) | impacts more pronounced in areas with high levels of extractive fishing (Q22) |