As part of the Brown Bag Lunch series, the International Economics Department at the Graduate Institute is pleased to invite you to a public talk given by Daniele Rinaldo, Postgraduate Fellow at the Graduate Institute, Geneva. He will present his research work entitled The Economic Impact of Schistosomiasis.

Abstract: Schistosomiasis is a chronic and debilitating neglected tropical disease that is endemic in many developing countries. Disease is contracted by direct contact with waters infested by the pathogen, whose life cycle requires an intermediate host (a freshwater snail) whose habitats are broadly expanded by water resources management. We study the effect of schistosomiasis on economic development by means of its impact on agricultural production. We estimate this impact to be large, negative and consistent with the disease being a productivity shock. We establish causality by using the density of freshwater snails as an instrumental variable. We introduce two significant methodological innovations: the use of high-resolution prevalence maps in the estimation of the economic impact of a disease, and the use of machine learning techniques for estimating the agricultural production function. We also show evidence of the feedback between disease diffusion and development: the creation of dams and irrigation networks, while boosting agricultural production, magnifies the adverse effects of the disease.