Impact of the West African Ebola Epidemic on Agricultural Production and Rural Welfare: Evidence from Liberia
| Autor: | Hanan G. Jacoby, Kotchikpa Gabriel Lawin, Alejandro de la Fuente |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2020 |
| Předmět: |
Consumption (economics)
Economics and Econometrics 030505 public health business.industry media_common.quotation_subject 05 social sciences Context (language use) Development 03 medical and health sciences Agrarian society Agriculture 0502 economics and business Per capita Economics 050207 economics Rural area Agricultural productivity 0305 other medical science Socioeconomics business Welfare media_common |
| Zdroj: | Journal of African Economies. 29:454-474 |
| ISSN: | 1464-3723 0963-8024 |
| DOI: | 10.1093/jae/ejaa002 |
| Popis: | The 2014-15 Ebola epidemic took a devastating human and economic toll on three West African countries, of which Liberia was perhaps the hardest hit. The pathways through which the crisis affected economic activity in these largely agrarian societies remain poorly understood. To study these mechanisms in the context of rural Liberia, we link a geographically disaggregated indicator of Ebola disease mortality to nationally representative household survey data on agricultural production and consumption. We find that higher Ebola prevalence (as proxied by local mortality) led to greater disruption of group-labor mobilization for planting and harvest, thereby reducing rice area planted as well as rice yields. Household welfare, measured by per capita expenditures spanning two points before and after the crisis, fell by more in Ebola prevalent areas with more intensive rice-farming, precisely those areas more adversely affected by agricultural labor shortages. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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