DONDENA Seminar - Juliana Jaramillo Echeverri

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“The Human Cost of Economic Crises: Evidence from Colombia’s 1997-1999 Collapse” 

SPEAKER: Juliana Jaramillo-Echeverri (Central Bank of Colombia)

ABSTRACT: : We study the mortality cost of Colombia’s 1997–1999 economic collapse, the deepest recession in the country’s twentieth-century history. Using administrative microdata and leveraging spatial variation in crisis intensity, we find that mortality is countercyclical, contrasting with evidence from advanced economies. We estimate the crisis effect by cause of death, age, region, and gender. The effect is driven by infants and the elderly, reversing a decade of decline in child mortality. We identify stress and the weakness of health and social safety net systems as key mechanisms. The results show where and for whom a deep recession without a safety net costs lives.

BIO: Juliana Jaramillo-Echeverri is a researcher at the Central Bank of Colombia and works at the Centre of Regional Studies (CEER) in Cartagena, Colombia. She is also a Research Affiliate at the LSE Historical Economic Demography Group and a co-editor-in-chief of the Industrial History Review - Revista de Historia Industrial. In 2023 she obtained a PhD from the London School of Economics. Her research sits at the intersection of economic history, historical development, and demography, examining historical patterns of development and the evolution of regional inequality across socioeconomic outcomes beyond economic growth.