Working Paper: NBER ID: w9004
Authors: Jayanta Bhattacharya; Thomas DeLeire; Steven Haider; Janet Currie
Abstract: We examine the effects of cold weather periods on family budgets and on nutritional outcomes in poor American families. Expenditures on food and home fuels are tracked by linking the Consumer Expenditure Survey to temperature data. Using the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, we track calorie consumption, dietary quality, vitamin deficiencies, and anemia in summer and winter months. We find that both rich and poor families increase fuel expenditures in response to unusually cold weather (a 10 degree F drop below normal). At same time, poor families reduce food expenditures by roughly the same amount as the increase in fuel expenditures, while rich families increase food expenditures. Poor adults and children reduce caloric intake by roughly 200 calories during winter months, unlike richer adults and children. In sensitivity analyses, we find that decreases in food expenditure are most pronounced outside the South. We conclude that poor parents and their children outside the South spend and eat less food during cold weather temperature shocks. We surmise that existing social programs fail to buffer against these shocks.
Keywords: cold weather; nutrition; poor families; food expenditures
JEL Codes: I32; I12
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| cold weather shocks (Q54) | increased fuel expenditures (Q40) |
| increased fuel expenditures (Q40) | decreased food expenditures in poor families (D12) |
| cold weather shocks (Q54) | decreased caloric intake among poor families (I32) |
| lack of adequate support (I24) | exacerbated nutritional challenges during cold weather (I14) |