Traditional leaders and the 2014–2015 ebola epidemic
Peter van der Windt, Maarten Voors
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.
Journal of Politics
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leader Social Sciences 100%
Sierra Leone Social Sciences 94%
health Social Sciences 35%
Windt, P. V. D., & Voors, M. (2020). Traditional leaders and the 2014–2015 ebola epidemic. Journal of Politics, 82(4), 1607-1611. https://doi.org/10.1086/708777
Traditional leaders and the 2014–2015 ebola epidemic. / Windt, Peter van der; Voors, Maarten.
In: Journal of Politics, Vol. 82, No. 4, 01.10.2020, p. 1607-1611.
Windt, PVD & Voors, M 2020, 'Traditional leaders and the 2014–2015 ebola epidemic', Journal of Politics, vol. 82, no. 4, pp. 1607-1611. https://doi.org/10.1086/708777
Windt PVD, Voors M. Traditional leaders and the 2014–2015 ebola epidemic. Journal of Politics. 2020 Oct 1;82(4):1607-1611. doi: 10.1086/708777
Windt, Peter van der ; Voors, Maarten. / Traditional leaders and the 2014–2015 ebola epidemic. In: Journal of Politics. 2020 ; Vol. 82, No. 4. pp. 1607-1611.
@article{4784c6885adb4a409addd8c382f73963,
title = "Traditional leaders and the 2014–2015 ebola epidemic",
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.",
author = "Windt, {Peter van der} and Maarten Voors",
note = "Funding Information: We gratefully acknowledge funding from the Royal Netherlands Embassy in Ghana, the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (grants 451-14-001 and W08.250.2013.111), the United Kingdom{\textquoteright}s Economic and Social Research Council (grant ES/J017620/1), and New York University Abu Dhabi. Data and supporting materials necessary to reproduce the numerical results in the article are available in the JOP Dataverse (https://dataverse.harvard.edu /dataverse/jop). An online appendix with supplementary material is available at https://doi.org/10.1086/708777. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2020 by the Southern Political Science Association. All rights reserved.",
doi = "10.1086/708777",
journal = "Journal of Politics",
T1 - Traditional leaders and the 2014–2015 ebola epidemic
AU - Windt, Peter van der
AU - Voors, Maarten
N1 - Funding Information: We gratefully acknowledge funding from the Royal Netherlands Embassy in Ghana, the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (grants 451-14-001 and W08.250.2013.111), the United Kingdom's Economic and Social Research Council (grant ES/J017620/1), and New York University Abu Dhabi. Data and supporting materials necessary to reproduce the numerical results in the article are available in the JOP Dataverse (https://dataverse.harvard.edu /dataverse/jop). An online appendix with supplementary material is available at https://doi.org/10.1086/708777. Publisher Copyright: © 2020 by the Southern Political Science Association. All rights reserved.
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
U2 - 10.1086/708777
DO - 10.1086/708777
JO - Journal of Politics
JF - Journal of Politics