Tommy Bengtsson
Professor
The long-term economic effects of polio: Evidence from the introduction of the polio vaccine to Sweden in 1957
Author
Summary, in English
This study explores the impact an exogenous improvement in childhood health has on later-life outcomes. Using extensive and detailed register data from the Swedish Interdisciplinary Panel covering up to 2011, we follow individuals exposed to the introduction of the first vaccine against polio in Sweden (birth cohorts 1937–1966) until adulthood in order to quantify the causal effect of polio vaccination on long-term economic outcomes. The results show that, contrary to what has been found in the literature for other health-related interventions, including other vaccines, exposure to the vaccine against polio did not seem to have any long-term effects on the studied adult economic outcomes. Upon closer inspection of how the disease affects children, this might be explained by the fact that no scarring effects from exposure to high incidence of polio were found on adult income, educational achievement, or hospitalizations, which seems to suggest that those who contracted the illness but suffered only the milder symptoms of the disease made a full recovery and had no lifelong sequels as a consequence of the condition. The absence of scarring effects is hypothesized to be related to the pathology and epidemiology of the disease itself, which infects many, but scars only those who suffer the most recognizable paralytic symptoms.
Department/s
- Centre for Economic Demography
- Department of Economic History
- EPI@LUND
- EpiHealth: Epidemiology for Health
- Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Lund University
Publishing year
2019-04-14
Language
English
Pages
32-41
Publication/Series
Economics and Human Biology
Volume
35
Document type
Journal article
Publisher
Elsevier
Topic
- Economic History
- Economics
- Health Care Service and Management, Health Policy and Services and Health Economy
Keywords
- vaccine
- polio
- income
- education
- early-life
- Sweden
Status
Published
Project
- Vaccines, Migration, and Family: The Long-Term Effects of Early-Life Exposures on Income, Education, and Health in Sweden
Research group
- EPI@LUND
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 1570-677X