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The impact of the Ebola crisis on mortality and welfare in Liberia
Author(s) -
Da Costa Shaun M.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
health economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.55
H-Index - 109
eISSN - 1099-1050
pISSN - 1057-9230
DOI - 10.1002/hec.4150
Subject(s) - welfare , estimation , consumption (sociology) , outbreak , ebola virus , demography , mortality rate , socioeconomics , medicine , environmental health , economics , social science , management , virology , sociology , market economy
This study assesses the impact of Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak on individual and total welfare in Liberia during 2014/15. By combining mortality and household consumption data, it estimates how much individuals would be hypothetically willing to pay to avoid the EVD‐induced increase in age‐ and sex‐specific mortality rates. The results suggest that the total welfare loss associated with EVD‐related mortality ranges from $90 to $190 million, which is comparable to estimates based on the economic costs of EVD alone. In addition, the estimates lie between those derived from the cost‐of‐illness and value of statistical life approaches applied in previous works. This suggests that incorporating additional information on age‐ and sex‐specific mortality, as well as individual consumption levels, provides a more accurate estimation of the welfare loss due to EVD‐related mortality.