Chronic Disease Burden and the Interaction of Education, Fertility, and Growth

Hoyt Bleakley and Fabian Lange

The Review of Economics and Statistics, 2009, vol. 91, issue 1, 52-65

Abstract: This study considers the eradication of hookworm disease from the American South (circa 1910) as a test of the quantity-quality (Q-Q) framework of fertility. Eradication was principally a shock to the price of quality because of three factors: hookworm (i) depresses the return to human capital investment, (ii) had a very low case-fatality rate, and (iii) had negligible prevalence among adults. Consistent with the Q-Q model, we find a significant decline in fertility associated with eradication. Copyright by the President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Date: 2009
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