Modern Medicine and the Twentieth Century Decline in Mortality: Evidence on the Impact of Sulfa Drugs

Abstract

Theory suggests that longer life expectancy encourages educational investment because a longer time horizon increases the value of investments that pay out over time. To estimate the magnitude of this effect, we examine a sudden drop in maternal mortality in Sri Lanka between 1946 and 1953, which sharply increased the life expectancy of girls. We assess whether girls' education relative to boys' increases more in areas with larger maternal mortality declines. We find that for every extra year of life expectancy, literacy increases by 0.7 percentage points (2%) and years of education increase by 0.11 years (3%).

The Impact of the Great Migration on Mortality of African Americans: Evidence from the Deep South

“…For example, even where rail transportation increased value to local farmland, incomes of black agricultural workers may have been largely unchanged. 24 Moreover, any long-term health benefits that accompanied increased local income were likely attenuated for black families due to discrimination in healthcare (see, e.g., Almond, Chay, and Greenstone, 2006, and Jayachandran, Lleras-Muney, and Smith, 2010). Given these factors, birth in a railway town may have had a smaller beneficial health impact for Southern-born blacks than whites.…”

Uncrossing the U.S. Black-White Mortality Crossover: The Role of Cohort Forces in Life Course Mortality Risk

“…This idea is briefly specified via the following points. First, regardless of race/ethnicity, cohorts born in the earliest years of the twentieth century—prior to the advent of vaccines, penicillin, and sulfa drugs (Jayachandran et al 2010); public health campaigns (Cutler and Miller 2005), smaller families; and improved nutrition (Fogel 2005; Fogel and Costa 1997)—are likely composed of relatively larger proportions of robust members at the oldest-old age groups than are subsequent cohorts born in the mid-twentieth century. This is due to the earlier cohorts’ elevated exposures to harsh early life conditions, as well as disparate exposure to subsequent health-enhancing knowledge and technologies.…”

Análise do impacto da alteração normativa na aposentadoria por invalidez no Brasil

“…Seguindo Jayachandran et al (2010), adicionam-se a variável tendência, t, de modo a controlar para fatores com tendência temporal que explicam as aposentadorias por invalidez, mas que não podem ser explicitamente incluídos nos modelos devido à indisponibilidade de dados. Por exemplo, a tendência de melhora e/ou piora nas condições de saúde do trabalhador e/ou nas condições de trabalho no RGPS e RPPS ao longo do tempo devem explicar as aposentadorias por invalidez, mas não podem ser explicitamente incluídas no modelo devido à indisponibilidade de dados para essas variáveis.…”

“…Por exemplo, a tendência de melhora e/ou piora nas condições de saúde do trabalhador e/ou nas condições de trabalho no RGPS e RPPS ao longo do tempo devem explicar as aposentadorias por invalidez, mas não podem ser explicitamente incluídas no modelo devido à indisponibilidade de dados para essas variáveis. Ainda seguindo Jayachandran et al (2010), incluímos as variáveis de interação, RPP×t e RPP×Depois×t, o que permite que os fatores com tendência temporal que explicam as aposentadorias possam ter efeitos distintos nos grupos (RPPS e RPGS) e períodos (antes e depois da EC 41/2003).…”