Public Health Efforts and the Decline in Urban Mortality: Reply to Cutler and Miller

Anderson, D. Mark; Charles, Kerwin Kofi; Rees, Daniel I.

doi:10.2139/ssrn.3314366

SSRN Journal

2019

DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.3314366

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Public Health Efforts and the Decline in Urban Mortality: Reply to Cutler and Miller

D. Mark Anderson

Kerwin Kofi Charles

Daniel I. Rees

Abstract: Any opinions expressed in this paper are those of the author(s) and not those of IZA. Research published in this series may include views on policy, but IZA takes no institutional policy positions. The IZA research network is committed to the IZA Guiding Principles of Research Integrity. The IZA Institute of Labor Economics is an independent economic research institute that conducts research in labor economics and offers evidence-based policy advice on labor market issues. Supported by the Deutsche Post Founda… Show more

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Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…However, Anderson et al. (Forthcominga) show that after correcting the dates, controlling for other interventions, and using the linearly interpolated population numbers, the effect is much smaller and insignificant.…”

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confidence: 99%

City health departments, public health expenditures, and urban mortality over 1910–1940

Hoehn‐Velasco

Wrigley-Field

2021

Economic Inquiry

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Over the early twentieth century, urban centers adopted full‐time public health departments. We show that opening full‐time administration had little observable impact on mortality. We then attempt to determine why health departments were ineffective. Our results suggest that achievements in public health occurred regardless of health department status. Further, we find that cities with and without a full‐time health department allocated similar per capita expenditures towards health administration. This health department funding also better predicts infant mortality declines. Our conclusions indicate that specific campaigns, public health systems, and funding may have been more meaningful for local health over this era.

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mentioning

confidence: 99%

City health departments, public health expenditures, and urban mortality over 1910–1940

Hoehn‐Velasco

Wrigley-Field

2021

Economic Inquiry

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“…This data source has been used by other authors interested in the effects of public health interventions on mortality at the turn of the 20 th century Miller 2005, 2018;Beach et al 2016;Anderson et al 2018Anderson et al , 2019 …”

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confidence: 99%

The phenomenon of summer diarrhea and its waning, 1910-1930

Anderson

Rees

Wang

2020

Explorations in Economic History

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During the first two decades of the 20th century, diarrheal deaths among American infants and children surged every summer. Although we still do not know what pathogen (or pathogens) caused this phenomenon, the consensus view is that it was eventually controlled through public health efforts at the municipal level. Using data from 26 major American cities for the period 1910-1930, we document the phenomenon of summer diarrhea and explore its dissipation. We find that water filtration is associated with a 15-17 percent reduction in diarrheal mortality among children under the age of two during the non-summer months, but does not seem to have had an effect on diarrheal mortality during the summer. In general, we find little evidence to suggest that public health interventions undertaken at the municipal level contributed to the dissipation of summer diarrhea. Our results are relevant for many parts of the developing world today, where climate change is expected to affect the length and intensity of seasons as well as the incidence of diarrheal diseases.

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Water purification efforts and the black‐white infant mortality gap, 1906–1938

Anderson

Charles

Rees

et al. 2021

Journal of Urban Economics

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According to Troesken (2004), efforts to purify municipal water supplies at the turn of the 20 th century dramatically improved the relative health of blacks. There is, however, little empirical evidence to support the Troesken hypothesis. Using city-level data published by the U.S. Bureau of the Census for the period 1906-1938, we explore the relationship between water purification efforts and the black-white infant mortality gap. Our results suggest that, while water filtration was effective across the board, adding chlorine to the water supply reduced mortality only among black infants. Specifically, chlorination is associated with an 11 percent reduction in black infant mortality and a 13 percent reduction in the black-white infant mortality gap. We also find that chlorination led to a substantial reduction in the black-white diarrhea mortality gap among children under the age of 2, although this estimate is measured with less precision.

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Public Health Efforts and the Decline in Urban Mortality: Reply to Cutler and Miller

Cited by 4 publications

References 17 publications

City health departments, public health expenditures, and urban mortality over 1910–1940

City health departments, public health expenditures, and urban mortality over 1910–1940

The phenomenon of summer diarrhea and its waning, 1910-1930

Water purification efforts and the black‐white infant mortality gap, 1906–1938

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