Abstract
Climate change is a pressing issue, affecting the lives of all people across the world. However, poorer and excluded communities are usually more affected, especially in low-income countries. Among them, women but particularly indigenous groups in rural areas seem to carry the bulk of the impacts produced by climate change and its many manifestations. We study the relationship between droughts and incomes and labor market outcomes in Chile over the period 1990–2017, focusing in particular on indigenous women. Our results show that overall indigenous women are the group most severely affected by droughts, decreasing their income, their probability of working in agriculture, and increasing their likelihood of working as an unpaid family worker or being out of the labor force. Results are robust to the use of different variables to measure droughts and to different econometric specifications. Our study corroborates the existence of marked heterogenous effects of climate change on different population groups and the vulnerability of indigenous communities to these shocks.
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Data Availability
All data used is publicly available from its original sources. CASEN surveys are available in http://observatorio.ministeriodesarrollosocial.gob.cl/encuesta-casen, Population Census are available from https://www.ine.gob.cl/estadisticas/sociales/censos-de-poblacion-y-vivienda/censo-de-poblacion-y-vivienda, Agricultural Census are available from https://www.ine.gob.cl/estadisticas/economia/agricultura-agroindustria-y-pesca/censos-agropecuarios, and climate-related data are available from https://www.cr2.cl/bases-de-datos/ and from https://snia.mop.gob.cl/BNAConsultas/reportes. Information collected in our field work are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Notes
As main changes, the priority of human right in the use of water and the need for effective use of water is introduced. These modifications affect only the new rights (6% of the water in Chile), while the rights already granted remained intact.
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This research has been funded by the Inter-American Development Bank through the “Implications of Climate Change and Natural Disasters for Latin America” Project.
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All authors conceive the idea, the project design and wrote and edit the manuscript. Rodrigo and Chiara were in charge of the statistical analysis. Rodrigo coordinated the project.
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Copyright © 2023. Inter-American Development Bank. Used by permission. The work was financed with the support of the Latin America and the Caribbean Research Network of the Inter-American Development Bank. The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Inter-American Development Bank, its Board of Directors, or the countries they represent.
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Pérez-Silva, R., Castillo, M. & Cazzuffi, C. Droughts and Local Labor Markets. Studying Heterogenous Effects on Women and Indigenous People in Chile. EconDisCliCha 7, 281–302 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41885-023-00130-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41885-023-00130-4