Beschreibung:
The impact of deforestation on child nutrition and health in poor regions of the world is a crucial topic to understand some of the implications of climate change on the wellbeing of the most vulnerable populations. I combine precise forest loss data with geocoded data from the Cambodian Demographic Health Surveys to investigate the impact of deforestation on child stunting. In the baseline analysis I find that girls living in areas with high deforestation rates in the year of the survey are more likely to be stunted whereas boys are not. I explore potential channels to understand the baseline results such as malaria infections and dietary diversity. The findings indicate that girls living in areas with high rates of current deforestation are more likely to have fever, a proxy for malaria infection. I do not find any significant correlation between current deforestation and dietary diversity. Finally, I find heterogeneous effects by the timing of deforestation. Girls exposed to deforestation in the mid-run are less likely to be stunted