The Causes of Ukrainian Famine Mortality, 1932-33

Andrei Markevich, Natalya Naumenko and Nancy Qian

No 29089, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: We construct large, unique panel data to study the causes of Ukrainian famine mortality (Holodomor) during 1932-33 and document several new facts: i) Ukraine (the Soviet Union) produced enough food in 1932 to avoid famine in Ukraine (the Soviet Union); ii) mortality was increasing in the pre-famine ethnic Ukrainian population share and unrelated to food productivity across regions; iii) this pattern exists across the Soviet Union, even outside of Ukraine; iv) the pattern was similar at different administrative levels; v) migration restrictions exacerbated mortality; vi) actual and planned grain procurement were increasing, while actual and planned grain retention (production minus procurement) were decreasing in the ethnic Ukrainian population share across regions. Anti-Ukrainian bias in Soviet policy explains up to 92% of famine mortality in Ukraine and 77% in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus; approximately half of the total effect comes from bias in the centrally planned food procurement policy.

JEL-codes: N14 O1 O13 P16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cis, nep-his, nep-isf and nep-tra
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