Eradicating the disease of the empty granary: health, structural transformation, and intergenerational mobility in Ghana

Conor Carney and Jon Denton-Schneider

No wp-2025-111, WIDER Working Paper Series from World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER)

Abstract: Guinea worm disease (GWD) was known as 'the disease of the empty granary' because it often incapacitated adult farmers for weeks during peak agricultural seasons. Using a difference-in-differences design, we show that its post-1989 eradication from Ghana increased agricultural productivity and women's paid employment and decreased child marriage rates. In the long run, adults who were children around 1990 are more likely to hold formal employment outside of agriculture, be literate, and live in urban areas.

Keywords: Agricultural productivity; Intergenerational Mobility; Health; Ghana (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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