What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger? The Impact of the 1918 Spanish Flu Epidemic on Economic Performance in Sweden

Arbeitspapier

We study the impact of the 1918 influenza pandemic on economic performance in Sweden. The pandemic was one of the severest and deadliest pandemics in human history, but it has hitherto received only scant attention in the economic literature – despite important implications for modern-day pandemics. In this paper, we exploit seemingly exogenous variation in incidence rates between Swedish regions to estimate the impact of the pandemic. Using difference in-differences and high-quality administrative data from Sweden, we estimate the effects on earnings, capital returns and poverty. We find that the pandemic led to a significant increase in poverty rates. There is also relatively strong evidence that capital returns were negatively affected by the pandemic. On the other hand, we find robust evidence that the influenza had no discernible effect on earnings. This finding is surprising since it goes against most previous empirical studies as well as theoretical predictions.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IFN Working Paper ; No. 911

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Health: Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health ; Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials ; Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity: General
• Subject: Spanish Flu ; Difference-in-Differences ; Infektionskrankheit ; Epidemie ; Einkommen ; Kapitaleinkommen ; Armut ; Wirtschaftsgeschichte ; Schätzung ; Schweden

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Karlsson, Martin ; Nilsson, Therese ; Pichler, Stefan
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)
• (where): Stockholm
• (when): 2012

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/81521
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:45 AM CET