DC Accepted Papers Paper:
Extreme Temperatures and Fetal Health: The Impacts of Extreme Heat Exposure in the United States
*Names in bold indicate Presenter
This paper documents the effects of temperature variation within county-wide geographic areas on fetal health, showing that prenatal exposure to high heat increases abnormal fetal conditions and chromosomal disorders and is associated with reduced gestation time. Rather than focusing on common metrics of birthweight, this study additionally explores abnormal birth conditions and congenital abnormalities. Using individual level data on 30 million births, this study controls for demographic factors of mothers and uses county, month, and year fixed effects to control for unobserved heterogeneity in the data. These results will provide new estimates of the health effects of climate change with the increased frequency and severity of heat waves in present day United States, identifying environmental contributors to the black-white fetal health gap.
