Replication Materials for “Climate Exposure and Foundational Learning in Bangladesh”
Description
This repository contains replication materials for the manuscript “Climate Exposure and Foundational Learning in Bangladesh.” The study examines how short-run outdoor thermal exposure at the time of assessment is associated with foundational reading and numeracy performance among children aged 7–14 in Bangladesh. The empirical analysis uses the Bangladesh Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) 2025 and links the timing and location of child assessments with high-frequency thermal conditions derived from ERA5-HEAT. The principal exposure measure is the Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI) at the recorded start time of the child interview, while additional specifications examine alternative same-day heat measures, nonlinear exposure categories, and longer-run climate conditions. The primary outcomes are the official MICS indicators of foundational reading and foundational numeracy. The preferred models exploit short-run spatial and temporal variation in thermal conditions while accounting for persistent district differences, nationwide interview-date shocks, interview timing, and predetermined child and household characteristics. The analysis also includes survey weighting, clustered inference, covariate-balance checks, alternative heat metrics, lead and lag placebo exposures, interviewer-related sensitivity analyses, inference checks, limited heterogeneity analyses, and long-run climate moderation. The public replication package contains Stata 14-compatible analysis code, public ERA5-HEAT climate inputs, derived district-hour and district-day UTCI exposure files, long-run climate summaries, metadata, aggregate statistical tables, figures, diagnostics, and reproducibility documentation. Respondent-level Bangladesh MICS 2025 microdata and restricted survey-linked geographic files are not redistributed. Researchers wishing to reproduce the complete survey analysis must obtain authorized access to those files through the official MICS data-access process and place them in the documented input locations. The deposited materials therefore support reproduction of the climate-processing and analytical workflow subject to access to the restricted MICS inputs. Third-party source materials remain subject to the terms and licensing conditions of their respective data providers.
Files
Steps to reproduce
Download and extract the replication ZIP while preserving the folder structure and read the separately deposited README.txt. The analysis requires Stata 14.0 or later. Respondent-level Bangladesh MICS 2025 microdata and the restricted survey-linked geographic file are not redistributed with this repository. Researchers wishing to reproduce the complete analysis must first obtain authorized MICS 2025 access through the official UNICEF MICS data-access process. Place the authorized fs.sav file in data_raw/mics/ and the authorized MICS 2025 cluster geographic-covariate file in data_raw/mics_geo/, following the filenames documented in the README. If necessary, convert the SPSS survey file using the supplied conversion utility. Open Stata, set the current working directory to the extracted replication-package root, and run do "do/00_RUN_FULL_REPRODUCTION_STATA14.do". The workflow prepares the survey variables, constructs the official foundational-learning outcomes, links assessment timing with the deposited ERA5-HEAT/UTCI exposure data, estimates the main and robustness specifications, and writes aggregate tables, figures, diagnostics and logs to the output/ directory. The public ERA5-HEAT inputs and derived climate-exposure files are already included in the replication archive.
Institutions
- Jagannath UniversityDhaka Division, Dhaka