IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/bcu/greewp/greenwp15.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Mosquitoes and Potatoes: How Global Health Crises Impede Development

Author

Listed:
  • Maurizio Malpede
  • Giacomo Falchetta
  • Soheil Shayegh

Abstract

The socioeconomic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic has been felt globally and across many sectors and population groups. While the long-term impact of the pandemic on economic growth is yet to be observed and assessed, history may provide some evidence on how public health emergencies have negatively affected socioeconomic development pathways well beyond the crisis duration. Here we examine the impact of malaria on the contribution of potato to the Old World's development during the 18th and 19th centuries. We exploit local variations in land suitability for potato cultivation and malaria transmission to estimate and compare the impact of growing potato on urbanization and population growth in highly endemic and non-endemic areas. We show that local weather conditions ideal for malaria transmission counteracted the potential benefits of introducing the potato in the Old World. Robustness checks from geographic variations in malaria stability, suitability for potato cultivation, and placebo treatments reinforce the positive effects of eradicating malaria on urbanization and population growth in potato-suitable areas after 1900. Our results highlight the interplay between technological change, public health, and development outcomes.

Suggested Citation

  • Maurizio Malpede & Giacomo Falchetta & Soheil Shayegh, 2021. "Mosquitoes and Potatoes: How Global Health Crises Impede Development," GREEN Working Papers 15, GREEN, Centre for Research on Geography, Resources, Environment, Energy & Networks, Universita' Bocconi, Milano, Italy.
  • Handle: RePEc:bcu:greewp:greenwp15
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://repec.unibocconi.it/iefe/bcu/papers/GREEN_wp15.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ruixue Jia, 2014. "Weather Shocks, Sweet Potatoes and Peasant Revolts in Historical China," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 124(575), pages 92-118, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yu Hao & Kevin Zhengcheng Liu, 2020. "Taxation, fiscal capacity, and credible commitment in eighteenth‐century China: the effects of the formalization and centralization of informal surtaxes," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 73(4), pages 914-939, November.
    2. Austin L. Wright, 2016. "Economic Shocks and Rebel," HiCN Working Papers 232, Households in Conflict Network.
    3. Maria Waldinger, 2015. "The effects of climate change on internal and international migration: implications for developing countries," GRI Working Papers 192, Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment.
    4. Lee, Wang-Sheng & Li, Ben G., 2021. "Extreme weather and mortality: Evidence from two millennia of Chinese elites," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    5. Laville,Camille & Mandon,Pierre Jean-Claude, 2023. "Internal Conflicts and Shocks. A Narrative Meta-Analysis," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10315, The World Bank.
    6. Ishak, Phoebe W., 2022. "Murder nature: Weather and violent crime in rural Brazil," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    7. Verme, Paolo & Schuettler, Kirsten, 2021. "The impact of forced displacement on host communities: A review of the empirical literature in economics," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    8. Desbureaux, Sébastien & Rodella, Aude-Sophie, 2019. "Drought in the city: The economic impact of water scarcity in Latin American metropolitan areas," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 13-27.
    9. Cheng, Hua & Gawande, Kishore & Qi, Shusen, 2022. "State capacity, economic output, and public goods in China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    10. Fenske, James & Kala, Namrata, 2017. "1807: Economic shocks, conflict and the slave trade," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 66-76.
    11. Deng, Kent, 2015. "China’s population expansion and its causes during the Qing period, 1644–1911," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 64492, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    12. Dincecco, Mark & Fenske, James & Menon, Anil, 2020. "The Columbian Exchange and conflict in Asia," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 527, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    13. James Fenske & Namrata Kala, 2012. "Climate, ecosystem resilience and the slave trade," CSAE Working Paper Series 2012-23, Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford.
    14. Deng, Kent & Shengmin, Sun, 2019. "China’s extraordinary population expansion and its determinants during the qing period, 1644-1911," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 100921, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    15. Leonardo M. Klüppel & Lamar Pierce & Jason A. Snyder, 2018. "Perspective—The Deep Historical Roots of Organization and Strategy: Traumatic Shocks, Culture, and Institutions," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(4), pages 702-721, August.
    16. Shuo Chen & James Kai-sing Kung, 2016. "Of maize and men: the effect of a New World crop on population and economic growth in China," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 71-99, March.
    17. Fenske, James & Kala, Namrata, 2021. "Linguistic Distance and Market Integration in India," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 81(1), pages 1-39, March.
    18. Qian, Nancy & Iyigun, Murat & Nunn, Nathan, 2017. "The Long-run Effects of Agricultural Productivity on Conflict, 1400-1900," CEPR Discussion Papers 12457, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    19. Kostadis J. Papaioannou & Michiel de Haas, 2015. "Climate shocks, cash crops and resilience: Evidence from colonial tropical Africa," Working Papers 0076, Utrecht University, Centre for Global Economic History.
    20. Papaioannou, Kostadis J. & de Haas, Michiel, 2017. "Weather Shocks and Agricultural Commercialization in Colonial Tropical Africa: Did Cash Crops Alleviate Social Distress?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 346-365.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Public health; Population; Urbanization; Malaria; Development;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O10 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - General
    • N10 - Economic History - - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations - - - General, International, or Comparative
    • I15 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health and Economic Development
    • Q10 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - General

    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:bcu:greewp:greenwp15. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Carlotta Milani (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/eabocit.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.