The Causes of Ukrainian Famine Mortality, 1932-33
We construct a large dataset to understand the causes of high Ukrainian mortality during the Great Soviet famine (1932-33). We document that holding per capita grain production, urbanization, and other factors constant, famine mortality rate was increasing in pre-famine ethnic Ukrainian population share across regions, even outside of Ukraine. Government grain procurement as a share of production is also increasing in pre-famine ethnic Ukrainian population share. These and other results imply that Ukrainian bias in Soviet policy was the main contributor to high Ukrainian famine mortality, and rule out alternative explanations such as bad weather or other exogenous factors.
Non-Technical Summaries
- Government policies motivated by ethnic bias can account for up to 92 percent of the deaths of ethnic Ukrainians living in Ukraine at...
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