The Effects of Dust Storms on Economic Development

Timothy Foreman, School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University, USA

Dust storms are a common occurrence for populations residing in semi-arid environments and can result in a variety of immediate and long-term impacts. Reports have included evidence of people suffocating due to airborne dust, transport networks being disrupted and leading to traffic accidents, as well as increases in asthma attacks. This is the first study use exogenous variation in dust exposure due to long-range transport to study the effects of dust storms on health and economic activity. I instrument local dust values using dust observed over the Bodélé Depression of the Sahara Desert, the largest dust source in the world. The probability that a child survives to age 5 declines by 0.19 percentage points per standard deviation increase in dust exposure at month of birth. Economic growth is reduced by 3% per standard deviation increase in dust exposure over 2 years. Agricultural yields decline in the year of impact on average by 2%. The effects found here could contribute to reduced economic development in the region of West Africa, and indicate that dust storms should be considered an important part of geographic endowments alongside other climate indicators.