Drought impact on health in cities of northeast of Brazil

Abstract

Global warming is one of the most discussed topics today by society, due to its consequences for humanity, and drought is one of its results. That said, the present article analyzed the drought impact on the health dimension of Firjan Index of Municipal Development in Northeast of Brazil, during the period between 2005 and 2016. In order to achieve this result, it was used the conceptual approaches of drought, public spending, and municipal development. As methodology, this paper selected a quantitative method by using a Panel Data econometric model composed by the dependent variable IFDM_SAUDE; drought as the independent variable of interest; public spending, population and time as variables of control. To generate the indicator drought, it was used the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), created by McKee, Doesken and Kleist (1993). Thus, it was concluded that drought, public spending and time were 95% relevant regarding municipal development index with a positive impact and population with a negative impact, evidencing that the larger volume of public spending towards a policy of drought effects mitigation, the best results for municipal development in health.