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Disease and Development: Evidence from Hookworm Eradication in the American South

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Bleakley, H.·2007·The Quarterly Journal of Economics
DOI 10.1162/qjec.121.1.73
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Abstract

1910) began soon after (i) the discovery that a variety of health problems among Southerners could be attributed to the disease and (ii) the donation by John D. Rockefeller of a substantial sum to the effort. The Rockefeller Sanitary Commission (RSC) surveyed infection rates in the affected areas (eleven southern states) and found that an average of forty percent of school-aged children were infected with hookworm. The RSC then sponsored treatment and education campaigns across the region. Follow-up studies indicate that this campaign substantially reduced hookworm disease almost immediately. The sudden introduction of this treatment combines with the cross-area differences in pre-treatment infection rates to form the basis of the identification strategy. Areas with higher levels of hookworm infection prior to the RSC experienced greater increases in school enrollment, attendance, and literacy after the intervention. This result is robust to controlling for a variety of alternative factors, including differential trends across areas, changing crop prices, shifts in certain educational and health policies, and the effect of malaria eradication. No significant contemporaneous results are found for adults, who should have benefited less from the intervention owing to their substantially lower (prior) infection rates. A long-term follow-up of affected cohorts indicates a substantial gain in income that coincided with exposure to hookworm eradication. I also find evidence that eradication increased the return to schooling.

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Research works printed but not linked: 18

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  2. - "Three Empirical Essays on Investment in Physical and Human Capital," PhD dissertation. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2002b.
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  7. Ettling, John, The Germ of Laziness: Rockefeller Philanthropy and Public Health in the New South, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1981. · DOI
  8. Farmer, Henry F., Jr. "The Hookworm Eradication Program in the South. 1909 - 1925," PhD dissertation, University of Georgia, 1970.
  9. Ferrell John A, 1932, Public Health Bulletin, 1
  10. Havens Leon C, 1930, Journal of Preventive Medicine, 114
  11. Jacocks W. P., 1924, Journal of the American Medical Association, 1601, 10.1001/jama.1924.02650460025011 · DOI
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  15. Miguel Edward, 2004, Econometrica, 217
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Cited by

Metadata

Authors
Bleakley, H.
Venue
The Quarterly Journal of Economics
Publisher
Oxford University Press (OUP)
Published
2007-02-01
Volume
122
Issue
1
Pages
73-117
ISSN
  • 0033-5533 (ISSN-L)
  • 1531-4650
DOI
10.1162/qjec.121.1.73
OpenAlex
W2055909669
Cited by
992
References
0
FWCI
29.57
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
green

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