Droughts in Africa: Adult Malnutrition and Occupational Change During Recurring and First‐Time Droughts

ABSTRACT How costly are droughts to adults' nutrition in Africa? Do people adapt to recurring droughts? We measure severe droughts using detailed satellite‐based index of greening observed bi‐monthly on a relatively high‐resolution 0.083° grid between 1982 and 2015, that captures persistent and severe deficits in soil moisture relative to grid‐cell and time‐of‐year normal moisture. Across 32 African countries, conditional on individual characteristics, timing relative to growing seasons, irrigation, and local grid‐cell‐level climate, we show that a severe 3‐month drought is associated with a 2% lower body mass index for adults if they happen for the first time. In contrast, recurring severe droughts, that happen in locations that have seen such droughts before, are not sig‐nificantly worse, suggesting that some degree of adaptation prevents larger cumulative effects. Our results suggest that during first‐time droughts the uneducated are more likely to become unemployed, whereas both labor reallocation across occupations and migration reduce the impact of recurring droughts.