Data and Code for: The Legacy of Colonial Medicine in Central Africa

Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Sara Lowes, University of California-San Diego; Eduardo Montero, University of Michigan

Version: View help for Version V1

Name	File Type	Size	Last Modified
AER_Replication			12/09/2020 06:03:PM
README.pdf	application/pdf	429 KB	01/06/2021 03:06:PM

Project Citation:

Lowes, Sara, and Montero, Eduardo. Data and Code for: The Legacy of Colonial Medicine in Central Africa. Nashville, TN: American Economic Association [publisher], 2021. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2021-03-19. https://doi.org/10.3886/E120570V1

Project Description

Summary: Between 1921 and 1956, French colonial governments organized medical campaigns to treat and prevent sleeping sickness. Villagers were forcibly examined and injected with medications with severe, sometimes fatal, side effects. We digitized thirty years of archival records to document the locations of campaign visits at a granular geographic level for five central African countries. We find that greater campaign exposure reduces vaccination rates and trust in medicine -- as measured by willingness to consent to a blood test. We examine relevance for present day health initiatives; World Bank projects in the health sector are less successful in areas with greater exposure.

Funding Sources: Harvard University; Harvard University. Weatherhead Center for International Affairs; Institute for New Economic Thinking

Scope of Project

Subject Terms: Trust; Medicine; colonialism; health; vaccinations; culture

JEL Classification:
      I15 Health and Economic Development
      I18 Health: Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
      N37 Economic History: Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy: Africa; Oceania
      O55 Economywide Country Studies: Africa
      Z10 Cultural Economics; Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology: General

Geographic Coverage: Central Africa

Time Period(s): 1921 – 2018

Collection Date(s): 2014 – 2018

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Published Versions

V1 [2021-03-19]

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