| 1. |
- Andersson, Jens, et al.
(författare)
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Long-term Drivers of Taxation in Francophone West Africa 1893–2010
- 2019
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Ingår i: World Development. - : Elsevier BV. - 1873-5991 .- 0305-750X. ; 114:February, s. 294-313
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Which factors have driven fiscal revenue in Sub-Saharan Africa in the long run? We address this question by studying quantitatively the long-term relationship between fiscal outcomes, economic expansion and external dependency in four francophone West African countries – Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Niger and Senegal – between 1893 and 2010. Using panel co-integration modelling we find a long-term relationship between, on the one hand, tax revenue and local economic development, proxied by international trade, and, on the other hand, tax revenue and developments of the economy and taxation in the former colonizing power France. The results indicate that economic expansion has been a significant factor in driving the long-term development of tax revenue in West Africa, just as it was in historical Europe, but also point to the historical vulnerability and external dependency of the fiscal systems of the four West African countries. We suggest that the wider implication of these results is that they point to the importance of deepening our understanding of how domestic contexts interact with external economic and institutional external forces to shape African fiscal systems, in contrast to factors such as inter-state warfare that are ubiquitous in narratives of historical European taxation and state development.
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| 2. |
- Cormack, Louise, et al.
(författare)
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Early-life disease exposure and its heterogeneous effects on mortality throughout life: Sweden 1905-2016
- 2024
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Ingår i: Demography. - 1533-7790. ; 61:4, s. 1187-1210
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Exposure to infectious diseases in early life has been linked to increased mortality risk in later life in high-disease settings, such as eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Europe. Less is known about the long-term effects of early-life disease exposure in milder disease environments. This study estimates heterogeneous effects from disease exposure in infancy on later-life mortality in twentieth-century Sweden, by socioeconomic status at birth and sex. Using historical population data for southern Sweden, we study 11,515 individuals who were born in 1905–1929 from age 1 until age 85. We measure exposure to disease using the local post–early neonatal mortality rate in the first 12 months after birth and apply flexible parametric survival models. For females, we find a negative effect on life expectancy (scarring) at ages 1–85 following high disease exposure in infancy, particularly for those born to unskilled workers. For males, we find no negative effect on later-life survival, likely because stronger mortality selection in infancy outweighs scarring. Thus, even as the incidence of infectious diseases declined at the start of the twentieth century, early-life disease exposure generated long-lasting negative but heterogeneous population health effects.
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| 3. |
- Lazuka, Volha
(författare)
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Defeating Disease : Lasting Effects of Public Health and Medical Breakthroughs between 1880 and 1945 on Health and Income in Sweden
- 2017
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis has the general aim of exploring the role of public health and medical interventions between 1880 and 1945, targeting infectious diseases, in health and income improvements in Sweden throughout the twentieth century. It applies methods of causal inference to longitudinal individual-level data from both local and national datasets combined with multisource archival data on the implementation of reforms. The bacteriological discoveries of the latter part of the nineteenth century helped the public to target infectious diseases through isolation, disinfection and treatment. The studies of this thesis show that these societal measures have had a sizable role in the contemporaneous decline in infectious disease rates. In the pre-drug period, public health interventions related to isolation and disinfection substantially reduced infant, child and infectious disease mortality in southern Sweden. In the period after the nationwide introduction of sulpha antibiotics in Sweden, the vast majority of the pneumonia decline was attributable to the antibiotics.Moreover, these studies find that by reducing the likelihood of infection, societal health measures led to beneficial consequences for the income and long-term health of the affected cohorts, extending through old age. In the long term, the cohorts treated in the early neonatal period by qualified midwifery in southern Sweden obtained strong reductions in all-cause mortality in adulthood and in mortality due to cardiovascular diseases and diabetes in old age. Throughout rural Sweden, similar preventive measures extended the lives and positively affected the lifetime incomes in old ages. The reduction in pneumonia mortality due to the nationwide arrival of sulpha antibiotics boosted the labour income and health of the cohorts that received these antibiotics in infancy. The largest effects on health have been found for hospitalizations due to cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, arthritis and respiratory diseases.This thesis therefore supports the endogenous growth theory, which posits an interaction between health improvements in early childhood and health technology, based on application of the germ theory of disease, as a determinant of economic growth in the long run. Although the health benefits due to this dynamic process cannot be viewed as a main driver of economic growth, societal health investments nonetheless led to income growth sufficient to yield a high rate of return on the investment. The cause – that is, the reforms under study that are targeting infectious disease – and the consequence, reductions in the rates of specific chronic diseases in adulthood and old age, point to the inflammation mechanisms behind the lasting effects. The studies also suggest that the early neonatal period and infancy are the critical period for intervening such processes.
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| 4. |
- Lazuka, Volha
(författare)
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Early-Life Assets in Oldest-Old Age : Evidence From Primary Care Reform in Early Twentieth Century Sweden
- 2019
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Ingår i: Demography. - : Duke University Press. - 0070-3370 .- 1533-7790. ; 56, s. 679-706
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Do early-life effects of investments in public health persist to the oldest-old ages? This article answers this question by using the primary care reform in rural Sweden that between 1890 and 1917 led to the establishment of local health districts, together with openings of hospitals and recruitments of medical personnel, as a natural experiment in early-life environmental conditions. The initiatives undertaken within these districts targeted control of infectious diseases, including various isolation and disinfection measures. This study applies a difference-in-differences method combined with propensity score matching to register-based individual-level data for Sweden from 1968 to 2012 and to multisource, purposely collected data on the reform implementation. Providing pioneering evidence for such a distal relationship (ages 78–95), this study finds that treatment through primary care in the year of birth leads to a significant reduction in all-cause mortality (4 % to 6%) and mortality from cardiovascular diseases (5 % to 6 %) and to an increase in average incomes (2 % to 3 %). The effects are universal and somewhat stronger among individuals from poor socioeconomic backgrounds and at higher baseline levels of disease burden.
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| 5. |
- Lazuka, Volha, et al.
(författare)
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Fighting Infectious Disease: Evidence from Sweden 1870-1940
- 2015
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Fighting infectious disease in the past, much like today, focused on isolating the disease and thereby stopping its spread. New insights into the modes of transmission and the causal agents in the mid-nineteenth century, together with fear of new epidemic outbreaks, motivated public investments aimed at reducing mortality from infectious disease. Combining longitudinal individual-level data on 17,000 children in a rural/semi-urban region in southern Sweden with parish-level data on public health investment from local ledger registers, we explore the effects of public health initiatives, such as the establishment of isolation hospitals and improved midwifery, on infant and child mortality. Using a difference-in-differences approach, we find that the establishment of isolation hospitals in the mid-1890s had been efficient in reducing child mortality, while the reformation of the midwife system after 1900s led to the decline in infant mortality, both by a magnitude of more than 50 per cent.
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| 6. |
- Lazuka, Volha, et al.
(författare)
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Fighting infectious disease: Evidence from Sweden 1870-1940
- 2016
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Ingår i: Population and Development Review. - : Wiley. - 1728-4457 .- 0098-7921. ; 42:1, s. 27-52
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Even more than in developing countries today, public health strategies to fight infectious disease in the past focused on the prevention of new infections by stopping their spread. These strategies were motivated by new insights into the causes of disease and the modes of transmission in the mid-nineteenth century. By combining longitudinal individual-level data on 17,000 children in a rural/semi-urban region in southern Sweden with local community data on public health investments, we explore the effects of the establishment of isolation hospitals and improved midwifery on mortality before age 15. Using a difference-in-differences approach, we find that the establishment of isolation hospitals in the mid-1890s was successful in reducing child mortality, while increases in the number of qualified midwives after the 1900s led to a decrease in infant mortality. In both cases, rates fell by more than 50 percent.
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| 7. |
- Lazuka, Volha
(författare)
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Heterogeneous Returns to Medical Innovations
- 2021
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This paper sets up a quasi-experiment to estimate both total and heterogeneous impacts of medical innovations on the individual’s economic outcomes for a comprehensive set of around 90 health conditions. The rich administrative panel data for Sweden covering more than 1 million individuals combined with disease-specific data on new molecular entities and patents granted in healthcare have allowed me to emulate such an experiment. I find that an increase in medical innovations by one standard deviation raises disposable family income by 14.8% [95% CI: 14.4%; 15.1%]. Regarding the sources of income response, medical innovations strongly influence not only own disposable and labour income and sickness and unemployment payments but also a spouse’s income. The effects of medical innovations are especially strong for cancer and circulatory diseases, are moderate for mental and nervous, infectious and respiratory diseases, and are absent or appear as losses for other health shocks. Results also suggest decreasing returns – yet far from reaching zeros – rather than constant returns to scale.
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| 8. |
- Lazuka, Volha
(författare)
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Infant health and later-life labour market outcomes : Evidence from the introduction of sulfa antibiotics in Sweden
- 2017
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- There is a growing body of literature showing that health in infancy has a strong influence on health and productivity later in life. This paper uses exogenous improvements in infant health generated by the introduction of a medical innovation in the late 1930s as treatment against several infectious diseases, in particular pneumonia reduced by the advent of the sulfa medicaments. Based on rich administrative population data for Sweden 1968–2012 and archival data on the availability of sulfa antibiotics, it explores the effect of reduction in exposure to pneumonia in infancy on labour market outcomes discerned in adulthood of the affected cohorts. Our findings suggest that mitigation of pneumonia disease burden in infancy substantially reduced probability of working disability and increased labour income in late adulthood. Regarding the mechanisms, the beneficial effects are strong for health, measured with reduced number of hospital admissions, and somewhat weaker for years of schooling. These effects are fairly equal among males and females, and larger among individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds. All effects are robust to various specifications including regional and family factors.
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| 9. |
- Lazuka, Volha
(författare)
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Infant Health and Later-Life Labour Market Outcomes: Evidence from the Introduction of Sulpha Antibiotics in Sweden
- 2020
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Ingår i: Journal of Human Resources. - 0022-166X. ; 55:2
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper studies the effects of improvements in infant health produced by the introduction of sulphapyridine in the late-1930s as treatment against pneumonia on outcomes in adulthood. Based on longitudinal individual data for the whole population of Sweden 1968–2012 and archival data on the availability of sulphapyridine and applying a difference-in-differences approach, it finds that mitigation of pneumonia infection in infancy increased labour income in late adulthood by 2.8–5.3 percent. The beneficial effects are strong for health, measured by length of stay in hospital, and weaker for years of schooling. These effects are similar between men and women.
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| 10. |
- Lazuka, Volha
(författare)
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It’s a long walk : Lasting effects of maternity ward openings on labour market performance
- 2018
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Studies showing that large-scale public health interventions in early life have lasting economic consequences are still scarce and rarely disclose the mechanisms. Being born in a hospital versus having a traditional birth attendant at home represents the most common early life policy change worldwide. Knowing the consequences of this policy is also important given the ongoing enlargement of maternity hospitals. In 1931–1946, the Swedish state subsidized the opening of new maternity wards, which led to the gradual decline of home deliveries assisted by midwives. Maternity wards offered improved conditions for mothers and newborns, including hygiene, surgical proficiency and medications, and health monitoring. By applying a difference-in-differences approach and geocoding techniques to register-based individuallevel data on the total population, observed from birth until the age of 65, this paper explores the long-term economic effects of access to better health services at birth using the opening of maternity wards throughout the country as an early life quasi-experiment. The paper first finds that the reform substantially reduced neonatal mortality in the short term by 19.0–26.5 deaths per 1000. Capturing survivors of the affected cohorts at the ages of 47–64, it then shows sizable long-term effects of the introduction of maternity wards on labour income (2.4–4.7 per cent) and disability pensions (4.4–11.9 per cent). The effects run directly through better health and indirectly through higher levels of schooling. Small-scale local maternity wards yield a larger social rate of return than large-scale hospitals, stemming from the treatment of normal births.
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