IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/apandp/v112y2022p199-204.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

1918 Every Year: Racial Inequality in Infectious Mortality, 1906−1942

Author

Listed:
  • James J. Feigenbaum
  • Lauren Hoehn-Velasco
  • Christopher Muller
  • Elizabeth Wrigley-Field

Abstract

In the first half of the twentieth century, racial inequality in the rate of death from infectious disease was immense. In every year from 1906 to 1920, Black Americans in cities died from infectious diseases at a rate higher than that of urban White Americans during the 1918 influenza pandemic. We decompose mortality into three broad causes of death to determine which causes were most influential. Our results suggest that racial inequality in infectious mortality was primarily driven by TB and flu—the two major respiratory causes of death. Waterborne causes, by contrast, played a minor role in explaining the disparity.

Suggested Citation

  • James J. Feigenbaum & Lauren Hoehn-Velasco & Christopher Muller & Elizabeth Wrigley-Field, 2022. "1918 Every Year: Racial Inequality in Infectious Mortality, 1906−1942," AEA Papers and Proceedings, American Economic Association, vol. 112, pages 199-204, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:apandp:v:112:y:2022:p:199-204
    DOI: 10.1257/pandp.20221068
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/pandp.20221068
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://doi.org/10.24433/CO.5855447.v1
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/pandp.20221068.appx
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/pandp.20221068.ds
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1257/pandp.20221068?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
    • N31 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - U.S.; Canada: Pre-1913
    • N32 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - U.S.; Canada: 1913-

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:aea:apandp:v:112:y:2022:p:199-204. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Michael P. Albert (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeaaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.