This study considers the malaria-eradication campaigns in the United States (circa 1920), and
in Brazil, Colombia and Mexico (circa 1955) in order to measure how much childhood exposure
to malaria depresses labor productivity. The campaigns began because of advances in health
technology, which mitigates concerns about reverse causality. Malarious areas saw large drops
in the disease thereafter. Relative to non-malarious areas, cohorts born after eradication had
higher income as adults than the preceding generation. These changes coincided with childhood
exposure to the campaigns rather than to pre-existing trends.