The White Death, Public Policy, and Economic Development

This project studies the consequences of public policies targeted at reducing tuberculosis (TB) prevalence and deaths for mortality and economic development prior to the invention of antibiotics. Using differences-in-differences and triple differences research designs, we investigate different historical policies using data from the US, Denmark and other European countries.

This speaks to debates on whether public policy mattered for the historical decline in TB, whether improving the disease environment matters for economic performance, and whether TB can be combatted in societies that face drug resistant TB strains.