Working Paper: NBER ID: w31522
Authors: Mary F. Evans; Ludovica Gazze; Jessamyn Schaller
Abstract: We estimate the impacts of temperature on alleged and substantiated child maltreatment among young children using administrative data from state child protective service agencies. Leveraging short-term weather variation, we find increases in maltreatment of young children during hot periods. We rule out that our results are solely due to changes in reporting at high temperatures. Additional analysis identifies neglect as the temperature-sensitive maltreatment type, and we find limited evidence that adaptation via air conditioning mitigates this relationship. Given that climate change will increase exposure to extreme temperatures, our findings speak to additional costs of climate change among the most vulnerable.
Keywords: child maltreatment; temperature; climate change
JEL Codes: I31; J12; J13; Q54
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| increases in maximum temperature above 25°C (Q54) | significant increases in child maltreatment allegations (J12) |
| increases in maximum temperature above 25°C (Q54) | significant increases in victimization rate (K42) |
| increases in temperature (Q54) | acute neglect cases involving law enforcement reporting (K36) |
| climate change (Q54) | annual average increase of 1.3 cases of substantiated maltreatment per county per day (J12) |
| increases in temperature (Q54) | increased rates of alleged and substantiated child maltreatment (J12) |