Traditional leaders and the 2014–2015 ebola epidemic

Peter van der Windt, Maarten Voors

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

We assess the role of traditional authorities during an acute health crisis, the 2014–15 Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone. We exploit plausible exogenous variation in the political competition for local chieftaincy positions and find evidence that traditional leaders helped shape the course of the epidemic. Locations with more “powerful” chiefs experienced substantially fewer recorded Ebola cases. We argue that this result is consistent with a view of traditional authorities as “stationary bandits,” in which leaders are locally embedded and thus benefited directly from controlling the spread of the disease. Subsequently, control measures were most effectively implemented by more powerful chiefs.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1607-1611
Number of pages5
JournalJournal of Politics
Volume82
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 1 2020

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Sociology and Political Science

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