What do people die of during famines: the Great Irish Famine in comparative perspective

Joel Mokyr and Cormac Ó Gráda

Open Access publications from School of Economics, University College Dublin

Abstract: The Irish Famine killed over a million people who would not have died otherwise. The nosologies published by the 1851 Irish census provide a rich source for the causes of death during these catastrophic years. This source is extremely rich and detailed, but also inaccurate and deficient to the point where many scholars have given up using it. In this article we try to make adjustments to the death-by-cause tabulations and provide more accurate ones. These tables are then used to analyse the reasons why so many people died and why modern famines tend to be less costly in terms of human life.

Keywords: Ireland--History--Famine, 1845-1852; Famines--Ireland--History; Mortality--Ireland--History (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 25 pages
Date: 2002-12
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)

Published in: European Review of Economic History, 6(3) 2002-12

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http://hdl.handle.net/10197/449 Open Access version, 2002 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: What do people die of during famines: the Great Irish Famine in comparative perspective (2002)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ucn:oapubs:10197/449

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