Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

This paper examines the impact of maternal exposure to the 2015 Nepal earthquake during pregnancy. This earthquake affected approximately 8 million people, resulting in an economic loss of US$ 10 billion, equivalent to about half of Nepal’s gross domestic product. From the standpoint of health and economic outcomes, the occurrence of these shocks in-utero is especially harmful because previous literature confirms that the first 1,000 days since conception are very important in the development of a child’s cognitive and non-cognitive skills. I use Nepal Demographic and Health Survey 2011 and 2016 and earthquake data from the National Planning Commission, Government of Nepal and the U.S. Geological survey. Using rare-event logistic regression, I estimate that the probability of preterm and still-birth birth is highest if the shock is experienced during the second trimester. The results also suggest that height-for-age z-score and weight-for-age z-score significantly decrease if the child experienced in-utero exposure to the earthquake. In addition to this, I find that immunization coverage also decreased as a result of the earthquake. Therefore, I can conclude that it would be important to develop and implement a specific program to support pregnant women and help them cope with the stress of a natural disaster.