Raker Models Relationship Between Severe Tornadoes and Infant Birth Weight in the United States
Posted: 12/31/2025 (CSDE Research)
CSDE External Affiliate Ethan Raker (University of British Columbia) and co-authors recently published an article in Demography on “Severe Tornadoes and Infant Birth Weight in the United States”. The authors merged 1991 – 2017 county-month data on singleton births with block-group-level monthly data on the paths of severe tornadoes and block-group data on the distribution of the population at risk of a birth, and then estimated difference-in-differences models in which the treatment variable is equal to the percentage of the population at risk of a birth affected by the tornado. Exposure to a tornado during pregnancy reduced birth weight for Black mothers.