This study examines how human capital develops in response to early-life weather and pollution exposures in the Philippines. Both pollution and weather are examined in relation to short- and long-term human capital outcomes. We combine a three-decade longitudinal survey measuring human capital development, a database of historical weather, and multiple databases characterizing carbon monoxide and ozone in the Philippines during the 1980s. We find evidence that extreme precipitation and temperature affect short-term anthropometric outcomes, but long-term outcomes appear unaffected. For long-term cognitive outcomes, we find that early-life pollution exposures negatively affect test scores and schooling. These long-term responses to early-life pollution exposures extend to the labor market with reduced hours worked and earnings. The implication is that a 25 per cent reduction in early-life ozone exposure would increase per person discounted lifetime earnings by $1,367, which would scale to $2.05 billion at the national level (or 2 per cent of 2005 GDP).

With the increasing number of natural disasters, understanding the links between these events and child health has become timely and pertinent. Using a panel dataset, this paper empirically investigates the persistent effects on child health due to exposure to a series of natural disasters that occurred from 2002 to 2007 in Indonesia. We find that girls exposed to multiple disaster events are 0.19 standard deviations shorter and are 7 per cent more likely to be stunted when measured 7 to 12 years later. We find no persistent effect on boys. From a public policy perspective, we highlight the need for coping strategies beyond access to credit or remittances in order to mitigate growth retardation in children.

Weather extremes which are accelerated by changing climate greatly decrease agricultural productivity, resulting in severe economic losses and losses of livelihood of the poorest marginal communities. The adoption of stress-tolerant rice varieties (STRVs) is recommended as a best technology fix for risk adaptation. Although STRVs provide better outcomes with no yield penalty, farmers' decisions to adopt new STRVs are influenced by a multitude of factors, most importantly information exposure. We used a sequential logit model to analyze the impact of information access and information quality on adoption decisions regarding STRVs in flood-risk areas. Over the years, we found that STRVs adoption has become scale neutral, but adopters have significantly higher access to information. The estimates showed that 48 per cent of the farmers having access to information decided to adopt STRVs. When information reaches 50 per cent of the rice farmers in flood-prone areas, the estimated additional annual income is US$235 million.

Estuaries are water bodies, many of which contribute to the sustainable development of cities. Many of them are considered natural landscapes, offering various recreational services to the population. However, estuary degradation is a common problem in developing countries. Ecuador, for example, has a significant problem with the pollution of its estuaries. Machala is one of the most affected cities due to the contamination of these water bodies. This issue has generated negative externalities in the housing market. Thus, our central hypothesis is that rental prices of houses are revalued as their distance from polluted estuaries increases. Using the hedonic pricing approach, our results confirm that the price of a residence increases by US$9.45 for every 100 m farther it is from the closest estuary. This amount constitutes approximately 5.25 per cent of the average rental value in Machala.

This paper examines whether green Official Development Aid (ODA) has a significant role in mitigating carbon emissions in recipient countries, and if institutional quality matters for the effectiveness of green ODA. For 86 green ODA recipient countries over the period 2003–2014, we explore the nexus between green ODA, institutions and carbon emissions. By using a two-step system generalized method of moment (GMM), we find that green ODA overall has no direct association with the mitigation of carbon emissions. However, when institutional quality indices are included, we found a significant effect of institutional quality on the effectiveness of green ODA. In general, green ODA is associated with higher carbon emissions in countries with poor institutions. In particular, green ODA is effective in mitigating carbon emissions when channeled to countries that enjoy higher economic freedom as well as more freedom from corruption. Results are mixed for the rule of law.