The Impacts of Climate Change and Weather Variations on the Sex Ratio at Birth and Child's Health in Brazil

Bernardo L. Queiroz, Cedeplar, UFMG
Alisson F. Barbieri, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG)

This paper has two main objectives. First, we analyze how changes in climate can affect the sex ratio at birth in relation to the expected historical trends and seasonal cycles, and greater likelihood of occurrence of male fetal deaths in a situation of climate variation than expected by historical trends and seasonal. Second, we investigate if weather conditions can impact child's heath. We use weight at birth as a measure of health, since it has important effects on their health in the future, school performance and productivity in the labor market. The importance of the paper is twofold: the work on the relationship of birth weight and socioeconomic variables is well developed, but the empirical literature on the relationship between environment and birth weight is less developed; second, we investigate these relations in a heterogenous state in Brazil using data from 1994 to 2010.