How Positive Was the Positive Check ? Investment and Fertility in the Aftermath of the 1918 Influenza in India ∗
@inproceedings{Donaldson2014HowPW, title={How Positive Was the Positive Check ? Investment and Fertility in the Aftermath of the 1918 Influenza in India ∗}, author={David Donaldson and Daniel Keniston}, year={2014} }
The 1918 influenza epidemic struck India when the subcontinent was mired in its long-term Malthusian equilibrium of low population growth and stable per-capita consumption. Its terrible death toll left survivors with additional agricultural land, which we show they rapidly put to agricultural use with no decrease in yields. Over the next decade this increased per-capita wealth was invested on both child quantity as well as quality as measured by the literacy rate. These results are in striking…
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