Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/73934 
Year of Publication: 
2005
Series/Report no.: 
Nota di Lavoro No. 106.2005
Publisher: 
Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM), Milano
Abstract: 
We use conjoint choice questions to ask public health and climate change experts, contacted at professional meetings in 2003 and 2004, which of two hypothetical countries, A or B, they deem to have the higher adaptive capacity to certain effects of climate change on human health. These hypothetical countries are described by a vector of seven attributes, including per capita income, inequality in the distribution of income, measures of the health status of the population, the health care system, and access to information. Probit models indicate that our respondents regard per capita income, inequality in the distribution of income, universal health care coverage, and high access to information as important determinants of adaptive capacity. A universal-coverage health care system and a high level of access to information are judged to be equivalent to $12,000-$14,000 in per capita income. We use the estimated coefficients and country sociodemographics to construct an index of adaptive capacity for several countries. In panel-data regressions, this index is a good predictor of mortality in climatic disasters, even after controlling for other determinants of sensitivity and exposure, and for per capita income. We conclude that our conjoint choice questions provide a novel and promising approach to eliciting expert judgments in the climate change arena.
Subjects: 
Adaptive capacity
Climate change
Human health effects
Extreme events
Heat waves
Vector-borne illnesses
Conjoint choice
Vulnerability
Sensitivity
JEL: 
Q54
I18
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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