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Pollution, Infectious Disease, and Mortality: Evidence from the 1918 Spanish Influenza Pandemic
- Source :
- The Journal of Economic History. 78:1179-1209
- Publication Year :
- 2018
- Publisher :
- Cambridge University Press (CUP), 2018.
-
Abstract
- This paper uses the 1918 influenza pandemic as a natural experiment to examine whether air pollution affects susceptibility to infectious disease. The empirical analysis combines the sharp timing of the pandemic with large cross-city differences in baseline pollution measures based on coal-fired electricity generating capacity for a sample 183 American cities. The findings suggest that air pollution exacerbated the impact of the pandemic. Proximity to World War I military bases and baseline city health conditions also contributed to pandemic severity. The effects of air pollution are quantitatively important. Had coal-fired capacity in above-median cities been reduced to the median level, 3,400-5,860 pandemic-related infant deaths and 15,575-23,686 pandemic-related all-age deaths would have been averted. These results highlight the complementarity between air pollution and infectious disease on health, and suggest that there may be large co-benefits associated with pollution abatement policies.
- Subjects :
- Economics and Econometrics
History
05 social sciences
Economics, Econometrics and Finance (miscellaneous)
06 humanities and the arts
pollution, infectious disease, mortality, 1918 influenza pandemic
jel:N32
jel:I15
jel:N52
060105 history of science, technology & medicine
jel:I18
jel:Q53
0502 economics and business
jel:Q58
0601 history and archaeology
jel:Q56
050207 economics
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 14716372 and 00220507
- Volume :
- 78
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- The Journal of Economic History
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....ed74f463670c7faac142891e99b75e6f