Peasant Households and Pandemic Viral Diseases

Arndt Feuerbacher, Scott McDonald and Karen Thierfelder

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: Outbreaks of infectious diseases are particularly devastating for developing countries and the poor: they deplete, through premature death and morbidity the primary asset of the poor – their labour – in economies with the least developed health care systems. This study examines how peasant households, who are simultaneously producers and consumers, might adapt to the impact of a pandemic. The analyses indicate that the dual role of peasant households allows them to mitigate some of the adverse impacts of a coronavirus pandemic, and thereby offset some of the economic effects. Critical to this is the ability of peasant households to transfer labour between agricultural activities and social reproduction; and this happens whenever in the year a pandemic occurs. But it is noteworthy that the changes in consumption and production patterns differ according to the timing of the pandemic.

Keywords: Peasant households; Seasonal labour; Labour-Leisure trade-off; Pandemics; Economy-wide modelling. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I10 I15 I32 J22 O10 O11 O13 Q13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-06-24
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lma
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https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/100867/1/MPRA_paper_100867.pdf original version (application/pdf)
https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/103370/1/MPRA_paper_103370.pdf revised version (application/pdf)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pra:mprapa:100867

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