Historical Prevalence of Infectious Diseases and Adaptation to Climate change: does Institution matter?

Abstract This study investigates how the historical prevalence of infectious diseases influences vulnerability to climate change through institutional quality. The study uses ordinary least squares and two-stage least squares estimation techniques with data from 145 countries for the period 1990 to 2015. Our study shows that the historical prevalence of infectious diseases influences, directly and indirectly, vulnerability to climate change. First, the historical prevalence of infectious diseases increases vulnerability to climate change. Second, this increasing effect decreases with the protection against expropriation risks. Therefore, countries with a high prevalence of historical infectious diseases should strengthen the protection against expropriation risks to mitigate the historical roots of climate change vulnerability.JEL Classification : B15 ; Q54 ; Q58 ; I10