Publication Type
Journal Article
Version
publishedVersion
Publication Date
4-2014
Abstract
In the early 20th century, the Japanese colonial government initiated an island-wide malaria eradication campaign in Taiwan, resulting in not only a rapid decline in malaria across time but also elimination of disparity across regions. Exploiting variations in malaria deaths caused by the campaign, we estimate causal effects of malaria exposure around birth on the health of elderly born in the colonial period. To mitigate potential biases caused by measurement errors and omitted confounders, we employ climatic factors to instrument for malaria deaths. Our findings suggest that people who were exposed to a high malaria risk around birth tend to have a higher likelihood of cardiovascular diseases and worse cognitive functions at old age.
Keywords
Malaria, Barker Hypothesis, health, Taiwan
Discipline
Asian Studies | Health Economics
Research Areas
Applied Microeconomics
Publication
Economic Development and Cultural Change
Volume
62
Issue
3
First Page
519
Last Page
536
ISSN
0013-0079
Identifier
10.1086/675434
Publisher
University of Chicago
Citation
CHANG, Simon; FLEISHER, Belton; KIM, Seonghoon; and LIU, Shi-Yung.
Long-term Health Effects of Malaria Exposure around Birth: Evidence from Colonial Taiwan. (2014). Economic Development and Cultural Change. 62, (3), 519-536.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soe_research/1535
Copyright Owner and License
Publisher
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.1086/675434