We estimate the impacts of temperature on alleged and substantiated child maltreatment among young children using administrative data from state child protective services agencies. Leveraging short-term weather variation, we find increases in the number of young children involved in cases of alleged and substantiated maltreatment during hot periods. Additional analysis identifies neglect as the temperature-sensitive maltreatment type, and we find some evidence that adaptation via air conditioning mitigates this relationship. Given that climate change will increase exposure to extreme temperatures, our findings speak to additional costs of climate change among the most vulnerable.

New technologies allow perfect detection of environmental violations at near-zero marginal cost, but take-up is low. We conducted a field experiment to evaluate enforcement of water conservation rules with smart meters in Fresno, CA. Households were randomly assigned combinations of enforcement method (automated or in-person inspections) and fines. Automated enforcement increased households’ punishment rates from 0.1% to 14%, decreased summer water use by 3%, and reduced violations by 17%, while higher fine levels had little effect. However, automated enforcement also increased customer complaints by 1,102%, ultimately causing its cancellation and highlighting that political considerations limit technological solutions to enforcement challenges.