Working Paper: NBER ID: w19245
Authors: Margaret S. McMillan; William A. Masters; Harounan Kazianga
Abstract: This paper addresses the role of tropical disease in rural demography and land use rights, using data from Onchocerciasis (river blindness) control in Burkina Faso. We combine a new survey of village elders with historical census data for 1975-2006 and geocoded maps of treatment under the regional Onchocerciasis Control Program (OCP). The OCP ran from 1975 to 2002, first spraying rivers to stop transmission and then distributing medicine to help those already infected. Controlling for time and village fixed effects, we find that villages in treated areas acquired larger populations and also had more cropland transactions, fewer permits required for cropland transactions, and more regulation of common property pasture and forest. These effects are robust to numerous controls and tests for heterogeneity across the sample, including time-varying region fixed effects. Descriptive statistics suggest that treated villages also acquired closer access to electricity and telephone service, markets, wells and primary schools, with no difference in several other variables. These results are consistent with both changes in productivity and effects of population size on public institutions.
Keywords: Onchocerciasis; Burkina Faso; Public Health; Rural Development; Institutional Change
JEL Codes: I00; Q0
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Treatment exposure (C90) | Population increase (J11) |
| Treatment exposure (C90) | Market-oriented governance of land use rights (R52) |
| Population increase (J11) | Closer access to public amenities (R53) |
| Treatment exposure (C90) | Institutional responses (O17) |
| Treatment (C22) | Changes in productivity (O49) |