Households and Heat Stress : Estimating the Distributional Consequences of Climate Change

Recent economic research documents a range of adverse welfare consequences from extreme heat stress, including health, labor productivity, and direct consumption disutility impacts. Without rapid adaptation, climate change will increase the burden...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors:	Park, Jisung, Hallegatte, Stephane, Bangalore, Mook, Sandhoefner, Evan
Format:	Working Paper
Language:	English en_US
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2015
Subjects:	SUMMER TEMPERATURES ECONOMIC EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE LOCAL TEMPERATURE COLDER CLIMATES IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE TEMPERATURE VARIATIONS IMPLICATIONS FOR CLIMATE CHANGE METEOROLOGICAL ORGANIZATION TEMPERATURE AIR QUALITY EXTREME TEMPERATURES TEMPERATURE RANGE EXTREME HEAT CARBON CONVERGENCE STORMS CLIMATES EMISSIONS GLOBAL MEAN SURFACE TEMPERATURE CARBON ESTIMATES SEASONAL TEMPERATURE TEMPERATURE EXPOSURE TEMPERATE CLIMATES CONSEQUENCES OF CLIMATE CHANGE AIR TEMPERATURE INCREASE HIGH TEMPERATURE TEMPERATURE STRESS CLIMATE DAMAGES INTERGOVERNMENTAL PANEL ON CLIMATE CHANGE CLIMATIC CONDITIONS CLIMATE‐ CHANGE STRATEGIES EXTREME HEAT EVENTS CLIMATE‐CHANGE CLIMATE POLICIES CAPACITY TEMPERATURE INCREASES TEMPERATURE IMPACTS SURFACE TEMPERATURES CLIMATE ADAPTATION CLIMATE‐POLICY AIR CONDITIONING CLIMATE‐ CHANGE TEMPERATURE DATA RAINFALL WARMER TEMPERATURES SURFACE TEMPERATURE MEAN TEMPERATURE TEMPERATURE VARIATION TEMPERATURE RISES IMPACTS OF TEMPERATURE COLD CLIMATE CLIMATE MODELS PRECIPITATION EXTREME TEMPERATURE ENVIRONMENTAL TEMPERATURES DEGREE DAYS TEMPERATURE DISTRIBUTION IMPACTS FROM CLIMATE CHANGE LEAD CLIMATE CHANGE SCIENCE GLOBAL CLIMATE TEMPERATURE VARIABILITY CLIMATE IMPACTS CLIMATE DATA HIGH TEMPERATURES TEMPERATURE LEVEL WARMER CLIMATE CLIMATE SOCIAL COST OF CARBON CLIMATIC RESEARCH SEA‐LEVEL RISE CLIMATE DAMAGE SURFACE TEMPERATURE INCREASE DAILY TEMPERATURE FUTURE CLIMATE CHANGE CLIMATE MITIGATION GLOBAL TEMPERATURE GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE CLIMATIC FACTORS AMBIENT TEMPERATURES SUMMER TEMPERATURE CLIMATE” VARIABLE COST OF CARBON EFFECT OF TEMPERATURE COLD CLIMATES CATASTROPHIC CLIMATE CHANGE LOCAL CLIMATE CLIMATE EXTREMES TEMPERATURES CLIMATE CONDITIONS CRU CLIMATE POLICY COLDER CLIMATE ECONOMICS OF CLIMATE CHANGE AMBIENT TEMPERATURE IMPACT OF TEMPERATURE CLOUD COVER ENERGY
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2015/11/25250702/households-heat-stress-estimating-distributional-consequences-climate-change http://hdl.handle.net/10986/23438

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Summary:	Recent economic research documents a range of adverse welfare consequences from extreme heat stress, including health, labor productivity, and direct consumption disutility impacts. Without rapid adaptation, climate change will increase the burden of heat stress experienced by much of the world’s population in the coming decades. What will the distributional consequences of this added heat stress be, and how might this affect optimal climate policy? Using detailed survey data of household wealth in 690,745 households across 52 countries, this paper finds evidence suggesting that the welfare impacts of added heat stress caused by climate change may be regressive. Specifically, the analysis finds that poorer households tend to be located in hotter locations across and within countries, and poorer individuals are more likely to work in occupations with greater exposure to the elements not only across but also within countries. These findings—combined with the fact that current social cost of carbon estimates do not include climate damages arising from the productivity impacts of heat stress—suggest that optimal climate policy, especially when allowing for declining marginal utility of consumption, involves more stringent abatement than currently suggested, and that redistributive adaptation policies may be required to reduce the mechanical inequities in welfare impacts arising from climate change.

Households and Heat Stress : Estimating the Distributional Consequences of Climate Change

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