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Fighting Infectious Disease: Evidence from Sweden 1870–1940

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  • Volha Lazuka
  • Luciana Quaranta
  • Tommy Bengtsson

Abstract

Fighting infectious disease in the past, much like today, focused on isolating the disease and thereby stopping its spread. New insights into the modes of transmission and the causal agents in the mid-nineteenth century, together with fear of new epidemic outbreaks, motivated public investments aimed at reducing mortality from infectious disease. Combining longitudinal individual-level data on 17,000 children in a rural/semi-urban region in southern Sweden with parish-level data on public health investment from local ledger registers, we explore the effects of public health initiatives, such as the establishment of isolation hospitals and improved midwifery, on infant and child mortality. Using a difference-in-differences approach, we find that the establishment of isolation hospitals in the mid-1890s had been efficient in reducing child mortality, while the reformation of the midwife system after 1900s led to the decline in infant mortality, both by a magnitude of more than 50 per cent.
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  • Volha Lazuka & Luciana Quaranta & Tommy Bengtsson, 2016. "Fighting Infectious Disease: Evidence from Sweden 1870–1940," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 42(1), pages 27-52, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:popdev:v:42:y:2016:i:1:p:27-52
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/padr.2016.42.issue-1
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    Cited by:

    1. Finn Hedefalk & Luciana Quaranta & Tommy Bengtsson, 2017. "Unequal lands: Soil type, nutrition, and child mortality in southern Sweden, 1850-1914," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 36(36), pages 1039-1080.
    2. Lazuka, Volha, 2018. "The long-term health benefits of receiving treatment from qualified midwives at birth," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 415-433.
    3. Lazuka, Volha, 2017. "Infant health and later-life labour market outcomes : Evidence from the introduction of sulfa antibiotics in Sweden," Lund Papers in Economic History 154, Lund University, Department of Economic History.
    4. Volha Lazuka, 2019. "Early-Life Assets in Oldest-Old Age: Evidence From Primary Care Reform in Early Twentieth Century Sweden," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 56(2), pages 679-706, April.
    5. Hedefalk, Finn & Quaranta, Luciana & Bengtsson, Tommy, 2016. "Unequal lands: Soil type, nutrition and child mortality in southern Sweden, 1850-1914," Lund Papers in Economic History 148, Lund University, Department of Economic History.
    6. Lazuka, Volha, 2017. "The lasting health and income effects of public health formation in Sweden," Lund Papers in Economic History 153, Lund University, Department of Economic History.
    7. Andreas Kotsadam & Jo Thori Lind & Jørgen Modalsli, 2022. "Call the midwife. Health personnel and mortality in Norway 1887–1920," Cliometrica, Springer;Cliometric Society (Association Francaise de Cliométrie), vol. 16(2), pages 243-276, May.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I14 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health and Inequality
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • H51 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Government Expenditures and Health
    • J18 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Public Policy

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