The Long-term impact of in-utero exposure to natural disasters

Abstract

This paper utilizes the Pakistan 2010 flood as a natural experiment, to examine the long-term effects of prenatal stress exposure. The flood began in late July, resulting in the brunt of the damages and loss. It affected more than 20 million people, caused between 1,800 and 2,000 causalities, damaged or destroyed approximately 1.7 million houses and economic loss of US$43 billion, making it the worst flood in the history of Pakistan. Microdata from the years 2019 and 2020 indicate that cohorts in utero during the flood displayed reduced rates of health and cognitive development outcomes compared with unaffected birth cohorts and unaffected districts. However, I did not find any significant effect on functional development such as hearing, listening and walking.