A comparative view of the relationship between the business cycle and mortality, 1871-1900.
This article compares two views on the relationship between the business cycle and mortality for the years 1871-1900. First, the views of Robert Higgs, a prominent mainstream economic historian, of the working and living conditions of this period are examined so that we may trace the reasons for his dependence on immigrants and the germs they bring with them as explanations for the procyclical relationship between mortality and short-term economic growth. This explanation is then criticized by re-examining the working and living conditions of this period and by linking these conditions to a disease theory that does not depend on exogenous forces to explain mortality patterns but rather one that focuses on historically specific political and economic processes and decisions.
D003132:Commerce; D004467:Economics; D004641:Emigration and Immigration / Q000266:history; D049672:History, 19th Century; D006801:Humans; D007109:Immunity; D009026:Mortality; D014481:United States; D014504:Urban Health / Q000266:history