TY  - JOUR
AU  - Jayachandran,Seema
AU  - Lleras-Muney,Adriana
AU  - Smith,Kimberly V.
TI  - Modern Medicine and the 20th Century Decline in Mortality: Evidence on the Impact of Sulfa Drugs
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 15089
PY  - 2009
Y2  - June 2009
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w15089
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w15089.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Seema Jayachandran
Department of Economics
Northwestern University
2001 Sheridan Road
Evanston, IL 60208
Tel: (847) 491-4757
Fax: (847) 491-7001
E-Mail: seema@northwestern.edu

Adriana Lleras-Muney
Department of Economics
9373 Bunche Hall
UCLA
Los Angeles, CA 90095
Tel: 310/825-3925
Fax: NA
E-Mail: alleras@ECON.UCLA.EDU

Kimberly V. Smith
Princeton, NJ
E-Mail: KSmith@mathematica-mpr.com
AB  - This paper studies the contribution of sulfa drugs, a groundbreaking medical innovation in the 1930s, to declines in U.S. mortality. For several often-fatal infectious diseases, sulfa drugs represented the first effective treatment. Using time-series and difference-in-differences methods (with diseases unaffected by sulfa drugs as a comparison group), we find that sulfa drugs led to a 25 to 40 percent decline in maternal mortality, 17 to 36 percent decline in pneumonia mortality, and 52 to 67 percent decline in scarlet-fever mortality between 1937 and 1943. Altogether, they reduced mortality by 2 to 4 percent and increased life expectancy by 0.4 to 0.8 years. We also find that sulfa drugs benefited whites more than blacks.
ER  -