The Captain of the Men of Death and His Shadow: Long-Run Impacts of Early Life Pneumonia Exposure

We exploit the introduction of sulfa drugs in 1937 to identify the causal impact of exposure to pneumonia in infancy on later life well-being and productivity in the United States. Using census data from 1980-2000, we find that cohorts born after the introduction of sulfa experienced increases in schooling, income, and the probability of employment, and reductions in disability rates. These improvements were larger for those born in states with higher pre-intervention levels of pneumonia as these were the areas that benefited most from the availability of sulfa drugs. These estimates are, in general, larger and more robust to specification for men than for women. With the exception of cognitive disability and poverty for men, the estimates for African Americans are smaller and less precisely estimated than those for whites. This is despite our finding that African Americans experienced larger absolute reductions in pneumonia mortality after the arrival of sulfa. We suggest that pre-Civil Rights barrers may have inhibited their translating improved endowments into gains in education and employment.early childhood, infectious diseases, pneumonia, medical innovation, antibiotics, schooling, income, disability, mortality trends.

Is The Captain of the Men of Death Still At Play? Long-Run Impacts of Early Life Pneumonia Exposure during Sulfa Drug Revolution in America

We exploit the introduction of sulfa drugs in 1937 to identify the impact of exposure to pneumonia in infancy on later life well-being and productivity in the United States. Using census data from 1980-2000, we find that cohorts born after the introduction of sulfa experienced increases in schooling, income, and the probability of employment, and reductions in disability rates. These improvements were larger for those born in states with higher pre-intervention pneumonia mortality rates, the areas that benefited most from the availability of sulfa drugs. Men and women show similar improvements on most indicators but the estimates for men are more persistently robust to the inclusion of birth state specific time trends. With the exception of cognitive disabilities for men and, in some specifications, work disability for men and family income, estimates for African Americans tend to be smaller and less precisely estimated than those for whites. Since African Americans exhibit larger absolute reductions in pneumonia mortality after the arrival of sulfa, we suggest that the absence of consistent discernible long run benefits may reflect barriers they encountered in translating improved endowments into gains in education and employment in the pre- Civil Rights Era. --early childhood,infectious diseases,pneumonia,medical innovation,antibiotics,schooling,income,disability,mortality trends

The Captain of the Men of Death and His Shadow: Long-Run Impacts of Early Life Pneumonia Exposure

We exploit the introduction of sulfa drugs in 1937 to identify the causal impact of exposure to pneumonia in infancy on later life well-being and productivity in the United States. Using census data from 1980-2000, we find that cohorts born after the introduction of sulfa experienced increases in schooling, income, and the probability of employment, and reductions in disability rates. These improvements were larger for those born in states with higher pre-intervention levels of pneumonia as these were the areas that benefited most from the availability of sulfa drugs. These estimates are, in general, larger and more robust to specification for men than for women. With the exception of cognitive disability and poverty for men, the estimates for African Americans are smaller and less precisely estimated than those for whites. This is despite our finding that African Americans experienced larger absolute reductions in pneumonia mortality after the arrival of sulfa. We suggest that pre-Civil Rights barriers may have inhibited their translating improved endowments into gains in education and employment.early childhood, infectious diseases, pneumonia, medical innovation, antibiotics, schooling, income, disability, mortality trends

Technical Efficiency in Agricultural Production and Its Determinants : An Exploratory Study at the District Level

Given the importance of agriculture to the well being of a large percentage of Indias population, it becomes important to study how improvements can be made in the productivity of this sector. This study attempts to estimate the technical efficiency a measure of how well inputs are being used towards producing output of about 250 Indian districts in 1990-91. It employs the stochastic frontier function methodology. The results indicate that (i) the land elasticity is the highest followed by fertilizer; (ii) the mean efficiency of raising agricultural output is 79 per cent and therefore there is a scope for increasing output by 21 per cent without additional resources; (iii) states such as Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan have the largest number of districts with below average TE and they stand to gain the most from policy interventions towards improving technical efficiency. The results further indicate that health, education, and infrastructure are powerful drivers of efficiency at the district level and the relative importance of the determinants of efficiency across districts depends greatly on environmental factors, such as agro-climatic zones, technological factors, and crop mix. The results highlight the need for developing policy strategies at a more localized level.agriculture, technical efficiency, stochastic frontier function, India

Gender Differences in Investments and Outcomes

Note: The Discussion Papers in this series are prepared by members of the Department of Economics, University of Essex, for private circulation to interested readers. They often represent preliminary reports on work in progress and should therefore be neither quoted nor referred to in published work without the written consent of the author. Cognitive Development and Infectious Disease

Health, Technical Efficiency And Agricultural Production In Indian Districts

In this study, we attempt to quantify the effect of improved population health on technical efficiency in agricultural production. Using data for over 260 districts in 15 Indian states, we employ the random-coefficients technique to estimate a Cobb-Douglas production function, computing overall and input specific technical efficiencies for each district. We then model health (the district infant mortality rate) as a determinant of (in) efficiency in a second stage, controlling for a range of other socioeconomic variables. We find that decreases in the infant mortality rate, as well as increases in the literacy rate and level of irrigation, are associated with significant increases in overall technical efficiency, and that a good portion of healths effect is probably due to improvements in the efficiency of labor use. While efficiency increases from improvements in irrigation and literacy are larger, the potential gains from health are still fairly substantial.technical efficiency, Random coefficients model, the frontier production function

Cognitive Development and Infectious Disease: Gender Differences in Investments and Outcomes

We exploit exogenous variation in the risk of waterborne disease created by implementation of a major water reform in Mexico in 1991 to investigate impacts of infant exposure on indicators of cognitive development and academic achievement in late childhood. We estimate that a one standard deviation reduction in childhood diarrhea mortality rates results in about a 0.1 standard deviation increase in test scores, but only for girls. We show that a reason for the gender differentiated impacts is that the water reform induces parents to make complementary investments in education that favor girls, consistent with their comparative advantage in skilled occupations. The results provide novel evidence of the potential for clean water provision to narrow test score gaps across countries and, within countries, across gender

Corruption and Inequality at the Crossroad: A Multimethod Study of Bribery and Discrimination in Latin America

How does corruption interact with inequality? To answer this question, we employ a field experiment that examines the manner in which police officers in a major Latin American city respond to socioeconomic distinctions when requiring a bribe. In this experiment, four automobile drivers commit identical traffic violations across a randomized sequence of crossroads, which are monitored by transit police. We identify the effect of citizens’ perceived wealth on officers’ propensity to solicit bribes and on the size of the bribes that they solicit. We complement our experimental results with qualitative findings from interviews with police officers. Our core finding is that officers are more likely to target lower class individuals and let more affluent drivers off with warnings. The qualitative results suggest that officers associate wealth with the capacity to exact retribution and therefore are more likely to demand bribes from poorer individuals. We conclude that a multimethod approach provides a richer account of corrupt behavior than that found in most contemporary research

Disability grants and individual and household welfare among HAART patients in South Africa

Objective: To examine whether the loss of disability grants creates perverse incentives to forego treatment and negatively impacts health and economic welfare among individuals on highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) in South Africa. Design: Three-year panel study of a sample of individuals in Khayelitsha (a large poor, black township in Cape Town, South Africa) on HAART. Methods: Descriptive cross-tabulations and multivariate individual fixed effects regressions using self-reported health status, adherence to treatment, individual and household incomes and employment status as dependent variables and a binary indicator of disability grant status as the main independent variable. Results: We found no statistically significant association between grant receipt and adherence to treatment, self-reported health status, or side effects from HAART. None of the individuals in the sample reported that they would be willing to forego treatment to remain eligible for grants and all respondents reported perfect or near perfect adherence to treatment. However, a loss of a disability grant was associated with substantial decreases ion individual and household incomes, respectively. Conclusion: While we found no evidence of people trading off their health for income, there still appears to be a large financial burden associated with disability grant loss, which could increase the salience of perverse incentives, especially among those who are unable to find employment. Future research should examine alternative social welfare programs for AIDS-sick individuals that minimize incentives to trade-off health for economic security