Malaria: Disease Impacts and Long-Run Income Differences

Douglas Gollin () and Christian Zimmermann

No 2007-30, Working papers from University of Connecticut, Department of Economics

Abstract: Malaria is a parasitic disease that causes over 300 million "acute illness" episodes and one million deaths annually. Most occur in the tropics, especially sub-Saharan Africa. Countries with high rates of malaria prevalence are gen- erally poor, and some researchers have suggested a direct link from malaria to poverty. We explore the interactions between malaria and national income, using a dynamic general equilibrium framework with epidemiological features. We find that without prevention or control, malaria can have a large impact on income. However, if people have any effective ways of avoiding infection, the disease has little effect on income levels.

Keywords: Malaria; Epidemiology; GDP; Disease prevention; Sub-Saharan Africa. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E13 E21 I1 O11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 33 pages
Date: 2007-08, Revised 2010-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr, nep-dge, nep-hea and nep-mac
Note: Portions of this research were undertaken while Gollin was on leave at the Economic Growth Center, Yale University, and at the Centre for Study of African Economies, Oxford University. Gollin gratefully acknowledges support and facilities at both institutions. Hoyt Bleakley has kindly shared information and preliminary results. We have also benefited from the comments of Ben Bridgman, Steve Meardon, Lara Shore-Sheppard, Gustavo Ventura, David Weil, and seminar and conference participants at the Arizona State University Conference on Economic Development; the Society for Economic Dynamics 2005 meetings in Budapest; the University of Essex; Rutgers University; the University of Delaware; University of Connecticut; University of Houston; Wesleyan University; LAMES 2006 in Mexico City; the Northeast Universities Development Conference 2005 at Brown University; and the Harvard Center for International Development.s May 2007 conference on Health Improvements for Economic Growth.
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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https://media.economics.uconn.edu/working/2007-30r.pdf Full text (revised version) (application/pdf)
https://media.economics.uconn.edu/working/2007-30.pdf Full text (original version) (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Malaria: Disease Impacts and Long-Run Income Differences (2008)
Working Paper: Malaria: Disease Impacts and Long-Run Income Differences (2008)
Working Paper: Malaria: Disease Impacts and Long-Run Income Differences (2007)
Working Paper: Malaria (2005)
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