Unintended Effects of Illegal Economic Activities: Illegal Gold Mining and Malaria

51 Pages Posted: 7 Sep 2016 Last revised: 22 Jul 2020

See all articles by Sandra Rozo

Sandra Rozo

University of Southern California - Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics; The Word Bank, Research Group

Date Written: September 4, 2016

Abstract

Illegal economic activities are not only associated with higher levels of violent crime, they may also increase unforeseen risks and cause other negative unintended consequences for populations. This paper investigates the causal effects of illegal gold mining on malaria incidence. For this purpose, I employ unique Colombian satellite data with the location of illegal gold mines matched to municipal governmental health reports on the number of malaria cases. To identify causal effects, I use preexisting geochemical gold anomalies as an instrumental variable for illegal gold production. I find positive and large effects of illegal gold mining on malaria incidence. My estimates suggest that when an area containing illegal gold mines increases by 1 hectare, the annual parasite index for malaria increases by 1.04 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.

Keywords: Resource Curse, Illegal Economic Activities, Malaria

JEL Classification: I00, K42

Suggested Citation

Rozo, Sandra, Unintended Effects of Illegal Economic Activities: Illegal Gold Mining and Malaria (September 4, 2016). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2834623 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2834623

Sandra Rozo (Contact Author)

University of Southern California - Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics ( email )

635 Downey Way
Los Angeles, CA 90089-3333
United States

The Word Bank, Research Group ( email )

Malaysia

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
319
Abstract Views
1,724
Rank
172,528
PlumX Metrics