National Bureau of Economic Research · 2009 · 23 citations · 30 references
Public HealthInfectious DiseasesPharmacologyEpidemiologic MethodsEpidemiologyMaternal MortalityDisease ControlLife ExpectancyMortality AnalysisPharmaceutical EconomicsPharmacoepidemiologyTime-series Analysis In EpidemiologyBetween-group ComparisonComparison Group DesignDifference-in-differencesGroup Comparison AnalysisHistorical Mortality DeclineInfectious Disease Mortality DeclineMedical InnovationScarlet Fever
This paper studies the contribution of sulfa drugs, a groundbreaking medical innovation in the 1930s, to declines in U.S. mortality. For several often-fatal infectious diseases, sulfa drugs represented the first effective treatment. Using time-series and difference-in-differences methods (with diseases unaffected by sulfa drugs as a comparison group), we find that sulfa drugs led to a 25 to 40 percent decline in maternal mortality, 17 to 36 percent decline in pneumonia mortality, and 52 to 67 percent decline in scarlet-fever mortality between 1937 and 1943. Altogether, they reduced mortality by 2 to 4 percent and increased life expectancy by 0.4 to 0.8 years. We also find that sulfa drugs benefited whites more than blacks.
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The Great Crash, the Oil Price Shock, and the Unit Root Hypothesis
Pierre Perrón · Econometrica · 1989 · 7.7K citations