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Health Shocks and Human Capital Accumulation: The Case of Spanish Flu in Italian Regions

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  • Marco Percoco

Abstract

Percoco M. Health shocks and human capital accumulation: the case of Spanish flu in Italian regions, Regional Studies. The impact of health on economic development is a hotly debated issue in the economics literature, with most scholars supporting the idea that the diffusion of diseases is detrimental to development. In this context, pandemics are an important case study given their exogenous nature, which makes identification of the impact of diseases on development clearer than in other cases such as malaria or smallpox. This paper focuses on Spanish flu in Italy, one of the countries with the highest mortality rate due to the pandemic. By exploiting the regional variation in mortality and focusing on the hypothesis of the foetal origins of cognitive abilities, the long-run consequences of influenza exposure in terms of human capital accumulation are estimated. An average reduction of 0.3–0.4 years of schooling for the cohort born in 1918–20 is found. This result points to a small but persisting effect of health shocks on regional productivity through a variation in the rate of accumulation of human capital.

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  • Marco Percoco, 2016. "Health Shocks and Human Capital Accumulation: The Case of Spanish Flu in Italian Regions," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(9), pages 1496-1508, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:regstd:v:50:y:2016:i:9:p:1496-1508
    DOI: 10.1080/00343404.2015.1039975
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    As found on the RePEc Biblio, the curated bibliography for Economics:
    1. > Economics of Welfare > Health Economics > Economics of Pandemics > Consequences > Health and human capital

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    1. Turner, Alex J. & Fichera, Eleonora & Sutton, Matt, 2021. "The effects of in-utero exposure to influenza on mental health and mortality risk throughout the life-course," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 43(C).
    2. Khan, Muhammad Jehangir & Ahmed, Junaid, 2021. "Child education in the time of pandemic: Learning loss and dropout," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    3. Doran, Áine & Colvin, Christopher L. & McLaughlin, Eoin, 2024. "What can we learn from historical pandemics? A systematic review of the literature," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 342(C).
    4. Ilan Noy & Tomáš Uher, 2022. "Economic consequences of pre-COVID-19 epidemics: a literature review," Chapters, in: Mark Skidmore (ed.), Handbook on the Economics of Disasters, chapter 7, pages 117-133, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    5. Enrico Berbenni & Stefano Colombo, 2023. "The impact of pandemics on labour organization: insights from an Italian company archive during the Spanish Flu," Letters in Spatial and Resource Sciences, Springer, vol. 16(1), pages 1-16, December.
    6. Jappelli, Tullio & Carillo, Mario Francesco, 2020. "Pandemics and Local Economic Growth: Evidence from the Great Influenza in Italy," CEPR Discussion Papers 14849, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    7. Amanda Guimbeau & Nidhiya Menon & Aldo Musacchio, 2022. "Short‐ and medium‐run health and literacy impacts of the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic in Brazil," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 75(4), pages 997-1025, November.
    8. Hmood H. Banikhalid, 2022. "The Full Lockdown in Jordan, 2020: The Economic Consequences," International Business Research, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 15(4), pages 1-46, April.
    9. Schwandt, Hannes, 2017. "The Lasting Legacy of Seasonal Influenza: In-Utero Exposure and Labor Market Outcomes," IZA Discussion Papers 10589, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Hou, Wenxuan & Li, Mao & Main, Brian G.M. & Liu, Xiaofan, 2023. "Pandemics and financial development: A lesson from the 1918 influenza pandemic," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    11. Amanda Guimbeau & Nidhiya Menon & Aldo Musacchio, 2020. "The Brazilian Bombshell? The Long-Term Impact of the 1918 Influenza Pandemic the South American Way," NBER Working Papers 26929, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Tatsuki Inoue, 2019. "The role of pawnshops in risk coping in early twentieth-century Japan," Papers 1905.04419, arXiv.org, revised Aug 2019.
    13. Ilan Noy & Tomáš Uher, 2022. "Economic consequences of pre-COVID-19 epidemics: a literature review," Chapters, in: Mark Skidmore (ed.), Handbook on the Economics of Disasters, chapter 7, pages 117-133, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    14. Enrico Berbenni & Stefano Colombo, 2021. "The impact of pandemics: revising the Spanish Flu in Italy in light of models’ predictions, and some lessons for the Covid-19 pandemic," Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, Springer;Associazione Amici di Economia e Politica Industriale, vol. 48(2), pages 219-243, June.
    15. Howard Bodenhorn, 2020. "Business in a Time of Spanish Influenza," NBER Working Papers 27495, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Dorner, Matthias & Haller, Peter, 2020. "Not coming in today - Firm productivity differentials and the epidemiology of the flu," IAB-Discussion Paper 202006, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    17. Faiz Ur Rehman & Noman Ahmed & Nasir Sarwar, 2020. "Pandemic-Induced School Closure and Inequalities in Homeschooling: Implications for the Long-run Human Capital Accumulation in Pakistan," PIDE COVID-19 Bulletins 2020:21, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics.

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