Through designs akin to difference-in-differences, Bleakley (2007) produces evidence that the cam- paign to eradicate hookworm from the American South circa 1910 boosted school enrollment in childhood and income in adulthood. This comment works to replicate and reanalyze that study. Innovations...

Bleakley (2010) finds that large-scale campaigns in the 20th century to eradicate malaria were followed by income gains for those native to historically endemic areas. I perform a pre-registered reanalysis and find these results to be largely robust. Malaria eradication efforts indeed appear to...

To engage with the large literature on the economic effects of slavery, we use antebellum census data to test for statistical differences at the 1860 free-slave border. We find evidence of lower population density, less intensive land use, and lower farm values on the slave side. Half of the...