Temperature, Disease, and Death in London: Analyzing Weekly Data for the Century from 1866-1965 / W. Walker Hanlon, Casper Worm Hansen, Jake W. Kantor.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hanlon, W. Walker.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Hansen, Casper Worm.

Kantor, Jake W.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w27333.

NBER working paper series no. w27333

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2020.

Summary:

Using weekly mortality data for London spanning 1866-1965, we analyze the changing relationship between temperature and mortality as the city developed. Our results show that both warm and cold weeks were associated with elevated mortality in the late 19th-century, but heat effects, due mainly to infant deaths from digestive diseases, largely disappeared after WWI. The resulting change in the temperature-mortality relationship meant that thousands of heat-related deaths-equal to 0.8-1.3 percent of all deaths-were averted. Our findings also indicate that a series of hot years in the 1890s substantially changed the timing of the infant mortality decline in London.

Notes:

Print version record

June 2020.