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Using household rosters from survey data to estimate all-cause excess death rates during the COVID pandemic in India

Anup Malani and Sabareesh Ramachandran

Journal of Development Economics, 2022, vol. 159, issue C

Abstract: Official statistics on deaths from COVID undercount deaths due to lack of testing. In developed countries, death registries are used to estimate excess deaths due to COVID during the pandemic. However, few developing countries had complete death registries even before the pandemic and the pandemic further stressed administrative capacities. As a substitute, we estimate all-cause excess deaths in India using the member rosters of a large, representative household panel survey. We estimate roughly 4.2 million excess deaths during the pandemic through February 2022. We cannot demonstrate causality between COVID and deaths, but the timing and age structure of deaths is consistent with the COVID pandemic and excess deaths are positively correlated with reported infections. Finally, we find that excess deaths were higher among higher-income persons and were negatively associated with mobility. The methods in this paper can be used in countries with a household panel to measure health-related demographic indicators.

Keywords: SARS-Cov-2; COVID; Pandemic; India; Mortality rate; Excess deaths; Household survey (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I10 I14 J10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:deveco:v:159:y:2022:i:c:s0304387822001304

DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2022.102988

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