Unequal Mortality During the Spanish Flu

Sergi Basco, Jordi Domenech and Joan Rosés

Chapter Chapter 3 in Pandemics, Economics and Inequality, 2022, pp 33-50 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract Determinants of pandemic-related mortality are not well understood. To begin with, there is no consensus on the best approach to count pandemic-related deaths. We argue that excess mortality is a good measure for the 1918 Flu in Spain, but it may not be suitable for other countries. There was substantial variation in excess mortality across occupations in Spain. The highest excess mortality was among low-income workers. In addition, there was a rural mortality penalty across all occupations that temporarily reversed the historical urban penalty. Climatic and economic conditions were correlated with excess mortality in the low-income groups but not in the middle and high-income ones. We conclude that the higher capacity of certain social groups to isolate themselves from social contact was behind these socioeconomic mortality differentials.

Keywords: Health inequality; Socioeconomic mortality differences; Urban penalty (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Working Paper: Unequal Mortality during the Spanish Flu (2021)
Working Paper: Unequal mortality during the Spanish Flu (2021)
Working Paper: Unequal mortality during the Spanish Flu (2021)
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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-05668-0_3

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