Malaria: Disease Impact and Long Run Income Differences?
Lecture by Professor Christian Zimmermann
What is the economic impact of malaria? This is a difficult question to answer in the absence of any reliable data and in the presence of potentially enormous endogeneity issues. This paper uses theory and calibration to investigate what we can learn about the cost of malaria. We also offer some policy advice. We use a stochastic dynamic general equilibrium model with heterogeneous agent augmented with epidemiologic features. This exercise also demonstrates how theory can be helpful in the absense of reliable data.
Prof. Zimmermann is based at the Department of Economics at the University of Connecticut and presently guest researcher at DIW Berlin.