What Happened to the U.S. Economy during the 1918 Influenza Pandemic? A View Through High-Frequency Data

B-Tier
Journal: Journal of Economic History
Year: 2022
Volume: 82
Issue: 1
Pages: 284-326

Score contribution per author:

2.011 = (α=2.01 / 1 authors) × 1.0x B-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

An economic downturn coincided with the start of the epidemic but the recession was short and moderate, compared with that of 1920/21. Cross-sectional high-frequency data indicate that the epidemic affected the labor supply sharply but briefly with no ensuing spill-overs; most of the recession, brief as it was, was due to the end of the war. I analyze weekly city-level mortality data and economic indicators with time series methods and structural estimation of an economic-epidemiological model: interventions to hinder the contagion reduced mortality at little economic cost, probably because reduced infections mitigated the impact on the labor force.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:cup:jechis:v:82:y:2022:i:1:p:284-326_8
Journal Field
Economic History
Author Count
1
Added to Database
2026-01-29