Abstract

The 2014-15 Ebola epidemic took a devastating human and economic toll on three West African countries, of which Liberia was perhaps the hardest hit. The pathways through which the crisis affected economic activity in these largely agrarian societies remain poorly understood. To study these mechanisms in the context of rural Liberia, we link a geographically disaggregated indicator of Ebola disease mortality to nationally representative household survey data on agricultural production and consumption. We find that higher Ebola prevalence (as proxied by local mortality) led to greater disruption of group-labor mobilization for planting and harvest, thereby reducing rice area planted as well as rice yields. Household welfare, measured by per capita expenditures spanning two points before and after the crisis, fell by more in Ebola prevalent areas with more intensive rice-farming, precisely those areas more adversely affected by agricultural labor shortages.

中文翻译：

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西非埃博拉疫情对农业生产和农村福利的影响：来自利比里亚的证据

摘要

2014-15年的埃博拉疫情给三个西非国家带来了灾难性的人类和经济损失，其中利比里亚可能是受灾最严重的国家。在这些主要农业社会中，危机影响经济活动的途径仍然知之甚少。为了在利比里亚农村地区研究这些机制，我们将按地理分类的埃博拉病死亡率指标与有关农业生产和消费的全国代表性住户调查数据联系在一起。我们发现较高的埃博拉流行率（以当地死亡率为代表）导致更大程度地破坏了种植和收获群体劳动力的动员，从而减少了水稻种植面积和水稻产量。家庭福利，以危机前后的两点人均支出来衡量，