Socioeconomic Scarring from a 1916 Typhoid Epidemic in a Finnish Industrial City

Jarmo Peltola, University of Helsinki
Sakari Saaritsa, University of Helsinki

Long run damage to human capital from exposure to infectious diseases, epidemic or otherwise, has become a growing research area particularly after the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to mortality, many studies have looked at long-run socioeconomic outcomes like employment, incomes or education. This paper uses comprehensive patient records from a 1916 typhoid epidemic in the Finnish industrial city of Tampere linked with full census records from 1930 to analyze the association of the health shock with outcomes including occupational mobility and residence patterns. Linkage with regularly published address calendars enables looking at potential effects not only at a single cross section but as trajectories over life courses at the individual level. Comprehensive hospital records make it possible to consider the impact of variation in diagnoses and disease burdens on the severity of scarring. Close knowledge of the local context and the existence of a multidimensional urban demographic database make it possible to decompose the effect of other crises and factors such as participation in the 1918 Civil War.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 112. Effects of Environmental Pressures