Malaria Risk and Civil Violence

Matteo Cervellati, Elena Esposito, Uwe Sunde and Simona Valmori

Discussion Papers in Economics from University of Munich, Department of Economics

Abstract: Using high-resolution data from Africa over the period 1998-2012, this paper investigates the hypothesis that a higher exposure to malaria increases the incidence of civil violence. The analysis uses panel data at the 1° grid cell level at monthly frequency. The econometric identification exploits exogenous monthly within-grid-cell variation in weather conditions that are particularly suitable for malaria transmission. The analysis compares the effect across cells with different malaria exposure, which affects the resistance and immunity of the population to malaria outbreaks. The results document a robust effect of the occurrence of suitable conditions for malaria on civil violence. The effect is highest in areas with low levels of immunities to malaria. Malaria shocks mostly affect unorganized violence in terms of riots, protests, and confrontations between militias and civilians, rather than geo-strategic violence, and the effect spikes during short, labor-intensive harvesting periods of staple crops that are particularly important for the subsistence of the population. The paper ends with an evaluation of anti-malaria interventions.

Keywords: Malaria Risk; Civil Violence; Weather Shocks; Immunity; Cell-level Data; Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D74 J1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-03-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr, nep-dev and nep-hea
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Malaria Risk and Civil Violence (2017)
Working Paper: Malaria Risk and Civil Violence (2016)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:lmu:muenec:36389

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