The stratified effect of extreme temperatures on birth weight: the role of energy prices

Abstract

This paper fills a notable gap in the existing literature on birth outcomes and extreme temperatures by examining the causal moderating effect of energy prices on the impact of extreme temperatures during pregnancy on birth weight. It uses a sharp increase in energy prices that occurred in Spain in March 2021 as an identification strategy and incorporates a new weather dataset that increases the number of monitors from which temperature information is derived in previous research by more than sixfold. The results show that the negative effects of extreme temperatures on birth weight are amplified at higher energy prices, especially for mothers of lower socioeconomic status. By focusing on how energy prices moderate the impact of extreme temperatures on birth outcomes, opportunities arise for policy interventions aimed at reducing health inequalities at birth. Moreover, given the critical role that events in utero play in individuals’ later development, such policies have the potential not only to reduce health inequalities at birth, but also to address broader inequalities in long-term outcomes.