Pollution, Infectious Disease, and Mortality: Evidence from the 1918 Spanish Influenza Pandemic

Karen Clay, Joshua Lewis and Edson Severnini

No 9399, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This paper uses the 1918 influenza pandemic as a natural experiment to examine whether air pollution affects susceptibility to infectious disease. The empirical analysis combines the sharp timing of the pandemic with large cross-city differences in baseline pollution measures based on coal-fired electricity generating capacity for a sample 183 American cities. The findings suggest that air pollution exacerbated the impact of the pandemic. Proximity to World War I military bases and baseline city health conditions also contributed to pandemic severity. The effects of air pollution are quantitatively important. Had coal-fired capacity in above-median cities been reduced to the median level, 3,400-5,860 pandemic-related infant deaths and 15,575-23,686 pandemic-related all-age deaths would have been averted. These results highlight the complementarity between air pollution and infectious disease on health, and suggest that there may be large co-benefits associated with pollution abatement policies.

Keywords: mortality; infectious disease; pollution; 1918 influenza pandemic (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I15 I18 N32 N52 Q53 Q56 Q58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 41 pages
Date: 2015-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-env, nep-gro, nep-hea and nep-his
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Published - published in: Journal of Economic History, 2018, 78 (4), 1179-1209

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Related works:
Journal Article: Pollution, Infectious Disease, and Mortality: Evidence from the 1918 Spanish Influenza Pandemic (2018)
Working Paper: Pollution, Infectious Disease, and Mortality: Evidence from the 1918 Spanish Influenza Pandemic (2015)
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