Browsing by Subject "Climate change and maternal mortality"

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Essays in applied microeconomics
(2019-05-03) Keisler, Mary Katherine; Youngblood, Sandra Black; Geruso, Michael; Abrevaya, Jason; Olmstead, Sheila
The first of paper provides an econometric estimates of the relationship between temperature and maternal mortality in the U.S. Exploiting the year-to-year variation in temperature within states, I use a semiparametic estimation strategy to capture non-linear effects in mortality risks at extreme temperatures. Whereas most of the existing literature uses dry-bulb (thermometer) temperature, I use wet-bulb temperature, a metric that accounts for both temperature and humidity. The analysis shows that an additional day with an average wet-bulb temperature above of 80°F (about 95°F with 50% relative humidity) is associated with roughly 2.2 additional maternal deaths per 100,000 births. These estimates suggest that climate change may generate up to an additional 3,700 maternal deaths per year by 2090 as a result of very hot and humid days. In the second paper, we examined the impact of a model that accelerates developmental math coursework in community colleges so that students can complete dev-ed and college math courses in their programs of study within one year. Using data from Texas and a propensity score matching approach, we tested the impact of the model on several college milestones. Results suggest that students in the accelerated model were more likely to persist and accumulate college-level credits during the first year than those in traditional dev-ed math. After three years, there was a strong positive relationship between participation in the accelerated model and important college milestones, like college math course completion and total accumulated college-level credits. The third paper estimates the relationship between temperature and maternal mortality in a developing region. Similar to the first paper, I study the effects of extreme temperatures on maternal mortality using wet bulb temperature. I find that, relative to day in a comfortable temperature range, an additional day with an average wet-bulb temperature above of 85°F is associated with roughly 0.61 additional maternal deaths per 100,000 births. An analysis of future warming due to climate change shows there may be as many as 6000 additional maternal deaths between 2050 and 2090 due to changes in temperature, especially additional hot and humid days