Malaria and Economic Development in the Short-term: Plasmodium falciparum vs Plasmodium vivax

Malaria---a disease caused by parasitic microorganisms of the Plasmodium genus---has been shown to impede economic growth and socioeconomic development in the long-term. In this paper, we use annual regional data from India to show that malaria outbreaks are associated with an immediate decline in economic development approximated by night light intensity. We find the association to be significant for outbreaks of both the globally most prevalent Plasmodium species: Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax. The estimated associations are quite sizeable. Severe outbreaks correlate with night light reductions of 5% of the standard deviation for P. falciparum and 4% for P. vivax.

This data set contains data for the paper replication.

疟疾（Malaria）是由疟原虫属（Plasmodium genus）寄生微生物引发的疾病，长期以来被证实会阻碍经济增长与社会经济发展。本文采用印度的年度区域数据，证实疟疾暴发与以夜间灯光强度（night light intensity）衡量的经济发展水平出现即时下滑存在关联。研究发现，这一关联在全球流行度最高的两种疟原虫物种——恶性疟原虫（Plasmodium falciparum）与间日疟原虫（Plasmodium vivax）——的暴发中均显著成立。估算得到的关联程度相当可观：恶性疟原虫引发的严重暴发会导致夜间灯光强度降低5%的标准差，间日疟原虫引发的严重暴发则会导致该指标降低4%的标准差。
本数据集供该论文的复现研究使用。