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Pennsylvania Convention Center, 204-B
Hosted By:
Association of Environmental and Resource Economists
Sanitation infrastructure is particularly lacking in India, where in 2011 roughly
90% of households in rural India did not own a toilet. A number of program evaluations
have worked to understand the adoption and health impacts of improved sanitation
technologies and behaviors, but no research has convincingly studied these effects over
the long-term. Our paper provides the first such long-term study, focusing on an
experimental community-led total sanitation campaign carried out in rural Orissa in
2005. We present panel evidence on the long-term dynamics of adoption of sanitation
technologies, and assess the extent to which this campaign led to long-run human
capital development among children living in households exposed to the intervention.
Using treatment assignment as an instrument for latrine adoption, we find that children
who belonged to a household with a latrine score significantly higher on a cognitive test
measuring analytic ability ten years later. We find that this effect is much stronger
among girls than boys. We explore multiple mechanisms examining the difference in
effect size between genders. We find evidence that girls generally benefit from fewer
early-life health investments than boys and score lower on cognitive tests absent
exposure to latrines. Among girls with access to latrines, however, the gap in cognitive
test scores is closed and girls perform just as well as their male peers. These effects are
consistent with the idea that girls start from a lower point on a concave human capital
development curve, and therefore receive higher marginal benefits from latrine
adoption.
This paper provides important contributions to the environment and development
economics literatures. Instead of showing an environment and development tradeoff,
we show that environmental improvements from sanitation can enhance long-term
development by providing large health and human capital gains.
Water, Health and Development
Paper Session
Sunday, Jan. 7, 2018 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
- Chair: Sheila Olmstead , University of Texas-Austin
Local Pollution Drives Global Pollution: Emissions Feedback Via Residential Electricity Usage
Abstract
This study links two major societal phenomena and shows that this link matters. First, consumption of air conditioning (AC) at the expense of natural ventilation is rising fast among the emerging middle class. Second, particle pollution afflicts many of these newly affluent households. I access longitudinal data for Singapore to show that air quality is a key driver of residential electricity demand. Electricity use grows by 10% when PM2.5 rises by 100 µg/m3. Counterfactually blowing one year of Beijing’s ambient air over Singapore increases electricity use by 10% and annual expenditure by US$ 163 for a household with AC at home. Singapore uniquely combines rich-country residential AC stocks with routine developing-country PM2.5 levels. The sizable co-benefit from reducing carbon-intensive electricity generation implies that climate-change mitigation policies include local pollution control. Moreover, the use of defensive capital such as AC can exacerbate health inequalities. Hitherto unmeasured benefits of pollution control in emerging megacities are reduced household electricity expenditure and carbon mitigation from reduced electricity generation.Improved Sanitation and Long-run Human Capital Impacts
Abstract
Poor sanitation has large negative impacts on environmental quality, health, and wellbeing.Sanitation infrastructure is particularly lacking in India, where in 2011 roughly
90% of households in rural India did not own a toilet. A number of program evaluations
have worked to understand the adoption and health impacts of improved sanitation
technologies and behaviors, but no research has convincingly studied these effects over
the long-term. Our paper provides the first such long-term study, focusing on an
experimental community-led total sanitation campaign carried out in rural Orissa in
2005. We present panel evidence on the long-term dynamics of adoption of sanitation
technologies, and assess the extent to which this campaign led to long-run human
capital development among children living in households exposed to the intervention.
Using treatment assignment as an instrument for latrine adoption, we find that children
who belonged to a household with a latrine score significantly higher on a cognitive test
measuring analytic ability ten years later. We find that this effect is much stronger
among girls than boys. We explore multiple mechanisms examining the difference in
effect size between genders. We find evidence that girls generally benefit from fewer
early-life health investments than boys and score lower on cognitive tests absent
exposure to latrines. Among girls with access to latrines, however, the gap in cognitive
test scores is closed and girls perform just as well as their male peers. These effects are
consistent with the idea that girls start from a lower point on a concave human capital
development curve, and therefore receive higher marginal benefits from latrine
adoption.
This paper provides important contributions to the environment and development
economics literatures. Instead of showing an environment and development tradeoff,
we show that environmental improvements from sanitation can enhance long-term
development by providing large health and human capital gains.
The Impacts of Large-scale Water Infrastructure Improvements in Urban Zarqa, Jordan
Abstract
Jordan is a highly water scarce country facing acute sectoral tradeoffs in water use. Consumers in Zarqa, the country’s second most populous urban area, typically receive piped water from the municipal network for fewer than 48 hours each week, and engage in a variety of costly coping strategies to mitigate water scarcity. Against this backdrop, the Millennium Challenge Corporation entered into a $275 million compact with the government of Jordan to improve the performance of piped water infrastructure and to increase the collection, treatment and reuse of wastewater, with the ultimate goal of increasing water efficiency and reducing poverty. This paper presents early quasi-experimental evidence on the effects of the Compact, using rich and diverse types of data collected at the end of the implementation period. We find evidence of several changes: self-reports of improved water pressure; increased sewerage and reduced sewage backups; and alterations in irrigation water sourcing in the Jordan Valley. We find tentative evidence for positive spillovers within Zarqa, compared to neighboring areas in Amman supplied by a different utility. One key category of anticipated impacts that does not materialize is in reduced spending on expensive alternatives to utility water. Though these results only indicate very short-term effects of this infrastructure improvement, they add to a scant body of rigorous evidence on the benefits of capital-intensive water infrastructure.Discussant(s)
Sheila Olmstead
,
University of Texas-Austin
David Keiser
,
Iowa State University
Yaniv Stopnitzky
,
University of San Francisco
Raymond Guiteras
,
North Carolina State University
JEL Classifications
- Q5 - Environmental Economics