The Impact of the 1918 Spanish Flu Epidemic on Economic Performance in Sweden - An Investigation into the Consequences of an Extraordinary Mortality Shock
(2014) In Journal of Health Economics 36. p.1-19- Abstract
- Abstract in Undetermined
We study the impact of the 1918 influenza pandemic on short- and medium-term economic performance in Sweden. The pandemic was one of the severest and deadliest pandemics in human history, but it has hitherto received only scant attention in the economic literature - despite representing an unparalleled labour supply shock. In this paper, we exploit seemingly exogenous variation in incidence rates between Swedish regions to estimate the impact of the pandemic. The pandemic led to a significant increase in poorhouse rates. There is also evidence that capital returns were negatively affected by the pandemic. However, contrary to predictions, we find no discernible effect on earnings.
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/4360092
- author
- Karlsson, Martin ; Nilsson, Therese LU and Pichler, Stefan
- organization
- publishing date
- 2014
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- in
- Journal of Health Economics
- volume
- 36
- pages
- 1 - 19
- publisher
- Elsevier
- external identifiers
-
- pmid:24721206
- wos:000338407000001
- scopus:84897950981
- pmid:24721206
- ISSN
- 1879-1646
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2014.03.005
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 5a37fba1-b024-4861-a2a9-130ff8b72593 (old id 4360092)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-01 11:13:22
- date last changed
- 2022-04-28 08:06:43
@article{5a37fba1-b024-4861-a2a9-130ff8b72593, abstract = {{Abstract in Undetermined<br/>We study the impact of the 1918 influenza pandemic on short- and medium-term economic performance in Sweden. The pandemic was one of the severest and deadliest pandemics in human history, but it has hitherto received only scant attention in the economic literature - despite representing an unparalleled labour supply shock. In this paper, we exploit seemingly exogenous variation in incidence rates between Swedish regions to estimate the impact of the pandemic. The pandemic led to a significant increase in poorhouse rates. There is also evidence that capital returns were negatively affected by the pandemic. However, contrary to predictions, we find no discernible effect on earnings.}}, author = {{Karlsson, Martin and Nilsson, Therese and Pichler, Stefan}}, issn = {{1879-1646}}, language = {{eng}}, pages = {{1--19}}, publisher = {{Elsevier}}, series = {{Journal of Health Economics}}, title = {{The Impact of the 1918 Spanish Flu Epidemic on Economic Performance in Sweden - An Investigation into the Consequences of an Extraordinary Mortality Shock}}, url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhealeco.2014.03.005}}, doi = {{10.1016/j.jhealeco.2014.03.005}}, volume = {{36}}, year = {{2014}}, }