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The Impact of the Ebola Crisis on Mortality and Welfare in Liberia

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  • Shaun Da Costa

Abstract

This paper assesses the welfare impacts of the 2014 Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak in Liberia, focusing on changes in age and sex specific mortality rates. The first part of the paper derives a survival function for a counterfactual no-EVD scenario, using mortality data from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME). This counterfactual survival function is then compared with the actual survival function in 2014 to estimate the change in survival conditions due to EVD. Next, the impact of this change on individual and total welfare is assessed using a marginal willingness to pay approach applied to data from the Liberian Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES). The results suggest that the total welfare costs of EVD-related mortality range between $2.5 to $4 billion, depending on the estimate of the survival probabilities adopted. Finally, the robustness of these results is tested using different preference parameter calibrations.

Suggested Citation

  • Shaun Da Costa, 2019. "The Impact of the Ebola Crisis on Mortality and Welfare in Liberia," Working Papers 1911, Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp.
    • Handle: RePEc:hdl:wpaper:1911
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    References listed on IDEAS

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