Statistical discrimination during the 1871 yellow fever epidemic in Buenos Aires

Juan Francisco Millas Caputo

No 4745, Asociación Argentina de Economía Política: Working Papers from Asociación Argentina de Economía Política

Abstract: This paper aims to assess the existence (and if so, estimate the magnitude) of a discriminatory bias against low-income and immigrant households in the context of the 1871 yellow fever epidemic in Buenos Aires. The argument presents the previous anecdotal evidence on discrimination based on socioeconomic outcomes and nationality from government-appointed commissioners, and proposes this investigation as an econometric approach that assesses and quantifies the existence of this phenomenon using historical data. The identification strategy consists of commissioner-level fixed-effects models to control for individual-specific unobservable variables and the inclusion the presence of unhygienic conditions as a control variable. The main takeaway is that, in line with previous anecdotal evidence presented by other authors, these households’ (conventillos) probability of being fined was 26 p.p. higher than other types of households and the monetary value of the fines they received were 323 $m/c (pesos moneda corriente) higher.

JEL-codes: J15 N36 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 28 pages
Date: 2024-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his
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