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What do people die of during famines: the Great Irish Famine in comparative perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2002

JOEL MOKYR  and
CORMAC Ó GRÁDA
JOEL MOKYR
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, Northwestern University, 2003 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60208, USA
CORMAC Ó GRÁDA
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, University College, Dublin 4, Ireland
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Abstract

The Irish Famine killed over a million people who would not have died otherwise. The nosologies published by the 1851 Irish census provide a rich source for the causes of death during these catastrophic years. This source is extremely rich and detailed, but also inaccurate and deficient to the point where many scholars have given up using it. In this article we try to make adjustments to the death-by-cause tabulations and provide more accurate ones. These tables are then used to analyse the reasons why so many people died and why modern famines tend to be less costly in terms of human life.

Type
Research Article
Information
European Review of Economic History , Volume 6 , Issue 3 , December 2002 , pp. 339 - 363
Copyright
© 2002 Cambridge University Press

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