We examine the Zika outbreak in Colombia in 2015 to determine how a negative shock affects female behaviors related to fertility. Our empirical strategy combines Zika reports and Demographic health surveys to distinguish the responses according to their marital status and it is based on an...

Epidemics tend to have a debilitating influence on the lives of directly afflicted families. However, the presence of an epidemic can also change the behaviour and outcomes of those not directly affected. This paper makes use of a short, sharp, unexpected epidemic to examine the behavioural...