Temperature and Human Capital in India

Authors

Teevrat Garg, University of California - San Diego
Maulik Jagnani, University of Colorado, Denver
Vis Taraz, Smith CollegeFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

9-9-2020

Publication Title

Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists

Abstract

We estimate the effects of temperature on human capital production in India. We show that high temperatures reduce math and reading test scores among school-age children. Agricultural income is one mechanism driving this relationship— hot days during the growing season reduce agricultural yields and test scores with comparatively modest effects of hot days in the nongrowing season. The roll-out of a workfare program, by providing a safety net for the poor, substantially weakens the link between temperature and test scores. Our results imply that absent social protection programs, higher temperatures will have large negative i

Keywords

climate change, human capital, workfare, agriculture

Volume

7

Issue

6

DOI

doi.org/10.1086/710066

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Rights

Licensed to Smith College and distributed CC-BY under the Smith College Faculty Open Access Policy.

Comments

Peer reviewed accepted manuscript.

Recommended Citation

Garg, Teevrat; Jagnani, Maulik; and Taraz, Vis, "Temperature and Human Capital in India" (2020). Economics: Faculty Publications, Smith College, Northampton, MA.
https://scholarworks.smith.edu/eco_facpubs/40