IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ifs/ifsewp/15-32.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Sanitation and child health in India

Author

Listed:
  • Britta Augsburg

    (Institute for Fiscal Studies and Institute for Fiscal Studies)

  • Paul Rodríguez-Lesmes

    (Institute for Fiscal Studies)

Abstract

Our study contributes to the understanding of key drivers of stunted growth, a factor widely recognized as major impediment to human capital development. Speci cally, we examine the e ffects of sanitation coverage and usage on child height for age in a semi-urban setting in Northern India. We use instrumental variables to control for endogeneity of sanitation usage coverage. We fi nd that sanitation coverage plays a signi cant and positive role in height growth during the fi rst years of life.

Suggested Citation

  • Britta Augsburg & Paul Rodríguez-Lesmes, 2015. "Sanitation and child health in India," IFS Working Papers W15/32, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    • Handle: RePEc:ifs:ifsewp:15/32
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.ifs.org.uk/uploads/publications/wps/WP201532.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. repec:pri:cheawb:tscjeff2013%20paper.pdf is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Carlos Bozzoli & Angus Deaton & Climent Quintana-Domeque, 2009. "Adult height and childhood disease," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 46(4), pages 647-669, November.
    3. Rohini Pande & Nan Astone, 2007. "Explaining son preference in rural India: the independent role of structural versus individual factors," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 26(1), pages 1-29, February.
    4. Katherine L. Dickinson & Sumeet R. Patil & Subhrendu K. Pattanayak & Christine Poulos & Jui-Hen Yang, 2015. "Nature's Call: Impacts of Sanitation Choices in Orissa, India," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 64(1), pages 1-29.
    5. A. Colin Cameron & Jonah B. Gelbach & Douglas L. Miller, 2008. "Bootstrap-Based Improvements for Inference with Clustered Errors," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 90(3), pages 414-427, August.
    6. Hammer, Jeffrey & Spears, Dean, 2013. "Village sanitation and children's human capital : evidence from a randomized experiment by the Maharashtra government," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6580, The World Bank.
    7. Dean Spears & Sneha Lamba, 2016. "Effects of Early-Life Exposure to Sanitation on Childhood Cognitive Skills: Evidence from India’s Total Sanitation Campaign," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 51(2), pages 298-327.
    8. Daniel Bennett, 2012. "Does Clean Water Make You Dirty?: Water Supply and Sanitation in the Philippines," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 47(1), pages 146-173.
    9. Puentes, Esteban & Wang, Fan & Behrman, Jere R. & Cunha, Flavio & Hoddinott, John & Maluccio, John A. & Adair, Linda S. & Borja, Judith B. & Martorell, Reynaldo & Stein, Aryeh D., 2016. "Early life height and weight production functions with endogenous energy and protein inputs," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 22(C), pages 65-81.
    10. John A. Maluccio & John Hoddinott & Jere R. Behrman & Reynaldo Martorell & Agnes R. Quisumbing & Aryeh D. Stein, 2009. "The Impact of Improving Nutrition During Early Childhood on Education among Guatemalan Adults," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 119(537), pages 734-763, April.
    11. Amy J. Pickering & Habiba Djebbari & Carolina Lopez & Massa Coulibaly & Maria Laura Alzua, 2015. "Effect of a community-led sanitation intervention on child diarrhoea and child growth in rural Mali: a cluster-randomised controlled trial," Post-Print hal-01456117, HAL.
    12. Nava Ashraf & James Berry & Jesse M. Shapiro, 2010. "Can Higher Prices Stimulate Product Use? Evidence from a Field Experiment in Zambia," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(5), pages 2383-2413, December.
    13. Pascaline Dupas, 2009. "What Matters (and What Does Not) in Households' Decision to Invest in Malaria Prevention?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 99(2), pages 224-230, May.
    14. Silvia Helena Barcellos & Leandro S. Carvalho & Adriana Lleras-Muney, 2014. "Child Gender and Parental Investments in India: Are Boys and Girls Treated Differently?," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 6(1), pages 157-189, January.
    15. repec:pri:cheawb:tscjeff2013%20paper is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Davidson, Russell & MacKinnon, James G., 2010. "Wild Bootstrap Tests for IV Regression," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 28(1), pages 128-144.
    17. Borooah, Vani K., 2004. "Gender bias among children in India in their diet and immunisation against disease," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 58(9), pages 1719-1731, May.
    18. Jeffrey Hammer & Dean Spears, 2013. "Village sanitation externalities and children's human capital: Evidence from a randomized experiment by the Maharashtra government," Working Papers 1443, Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Center for Health and Wellbeing..
    19. Marianne Bertrand & Esther Duflo & Sendhil Mullainathan, 2004. "How Much Should We Trust Differences-In-Differences Estimates?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 119(1), pages 249-275.
    20. Currie, Janet, 2000. "Child health in developed countries," Handbook of Health Economics, in: A. J. Culyer & J. P. Newhouse (ed.), Handbook of Health Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 19, pages 1053-1090, Elsevier.
    21. Almond, Douglas & Currie, Janet, 2011. "Human Capital Development before Age Five," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 15, pages 1315-1486, Elsevier.
    22. Payal Hathi & Sabrina Haque & Lovey Pant & Diane Coffey & Dean Spears, 2017. "Place and Child Health: The Interaction of Population Density and Sanitation in Developing Countries," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 54(1), pages 337-360, February.
    23. Esther Duflo & Michael Greenstone & Raymond Guiteras & Thomas Clasen, 2015. "Toilets Can Work: Short and Medium Run Health Impacts of Addressing Complementarities and Externalities in Water and Sanitation," NBER Working Papers 21521, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    24. Spears Dean, 2011. "Economic Decision-Making in Poverty Depletes Behavioral Control," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 11(1), pages 1-44, December.
    25. Douglas Staiger & James H. Stock, 1997. "Instrumental Variables Regression with Weak Instruments," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 65(3), pages 557-586, May.
    26. Smith, Lisa C. & Haddad, Lawrence, 2015. "Reducing Child Undernutrition: Past Drivers and Priorities for the Post-MDG Era," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 180-204.
    27. Santosh Kumar & Sebastian Vollmer, 2013. "Does Access To Improved Sanitation Reduce Childhood Diarrhea In Rural India?," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(4), pages 410-427, April.
    28. Petra E. Todd & Kenneth I. Wolpin, 2003. "On The Specification and Estimation of The Production Function for Cognitive Achievement," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 113(485), pages 3-33, February.
    29. Jessica Cohen & Pascaline Dupas, 2010. "Free Distribution or Cost-Sharing? Evidence from a Randomized Malaria Prevention Experiment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 125(1), pages 1-45.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Aneesh M.R., 2021. "Quality of Drinking Water and Sanitation in India," Indian Journal of Human Development, , vol. 15(1), pages 138-152, April.
    2. Augsburg, Britta & Caeyers, Bet & Giunti, Sara & Malde, Bansi & Smets, Susanna, 2023. "Labeled loans and human capital investments," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    3. Kresch, Evan Plous & Walker, Mark & Best, Michael Carlos & Gerard, François & Naritomi, Joana, 2023. "Sanitation and property tax compliance: Analyzing the social contract in Brazil," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    4. Augsburg,Britta & Caeyers,Bet & Malde,Bansi Khimji, 2019. "Can Micro-Credit Support Public Health Subsidy Programs ?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 8846, The World Bank.
    5. Augsburg,Britta & Caeyers,Bet & Giunti,Sara & Malde,Bansi Khimji & Smets,Susanna, 2019. "Labelled Loans, Credit Constraints and Sanitation Investments," Policy Research Working Paper Series 8845, The World Bank.
    6. Acheampong, Alex O. & Opoku, Eric Evans Osei & Tetteh, Godsway Korku, 2024. "Unveiling the effect of income inequality on safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH): Does financial inclusion matter?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 178(C).
    7. Augsburg, Britta & Malde, Bansi & Olorenshaw, Harriet & Wahhaj, Zaki, 2023. "To invest or not to invest in sanitation: The role of intra-household gender differences in perceptions and bargaining power," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    8. Alex Armand & Britta Augsburg & Antonella Bancalari, 2021. "Coordination and the poor maintenance trap: an experiment on public infrastructure in India," NOVAFRICA Working Paper Series wp2110, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Nova School of Business and Economics, NOVAFRICA.
    9. Evan Plous Kresch & Molly Lipscomb & Laura Schechter, 2020. "Externalities and Spillovers from Sanitation and Waste Management in Urban and Rural Neighborhoods," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 42(3), pages 395-420, September.
    10. Abramovsky, Laura & Augsburg, Britta & Lührmann, Melanie & Oteiza, Francisco & Rud, Juan Pablo, 2023. "Community matters: Heterogeneous impacts of a sanitation intervention," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    11. Gautam, Sanghmitra, 2023. "Quantifying welfare effects in the presence of externalities: An ex-ante evaluation of sanitation interventions," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    12. Wang, Dongqin & Shen, Yanni, 2022. "Sanitation and work time: Evidence from the toilet revolution in rural China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    13. Antonella Bancalari, 2020. "Can white elephants kill? Unintended consequences of infrastructure development in Peru," IFS Working Papers W20/32, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    14. Cameron, Lisa & Santos, Paulo & Thomas, Milan & Albert, Jeff, 2021. "Sanitation, financial incentives and health spillovers: A cluster randomised trial," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    15. Dossè Mawussi DJAHINI-AFAWOUBO, 2017. "Working Paper 267 - Does Access to Basic Services Matter for Child Health? Evidence From Togo," Working Paper Series 2384, African Development Bank.
    16. Rahman, Mohammad Hifz Ur & Malik, Manzoor Ahmad & Chauhan, Shekhar & Patel, Ratna & Singh, Ashish & Mittal, Anshu, 2020. "Examining the linkage between open defecation and child malnutrition in India," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    17. Bao, Yanxi & Liao, Tingxuan, 2024. "Multidimensional poverty and growth: Evidence from India 1998–2021," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    18. Vani Kant Borooah, 2022. "Development, Sanitation and Personal Hygiene in India," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 34(1), pages 103-123, February.
    19. Saraswat, Deepak, 2024. "Gender composition of children and sanitation behavior in India," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    20. Revilla, Ma. Laarni D. & Qu, Fangqi & Seetharam, K E & Rao, Bhanoji, 2021. "“Sanitation” in the Top Development Journals: A Review," ADBI Working Papers 1253, Asian Development Bank Institute.
    21. Bakhtiar, M. Mehrab & Guiteras, Raymond P. & Levinsohn, James & Mobarak, Ahmed Mushfiq, 2023. "Social and financial incentives for overcoming a collective action problem," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    22. Junpeng Li & Puneet Vatsa & Wanglin Ma, 2024. "Flush toilet use and its impact on health and non‐health expenditures," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 36(4), pages 2022-2046, May.
    23. Pakhtigian, Emily L. & Pattanayak, Subhrendu K., 2024. "Social setting, gender, and preferences for improved sanitation: Evidence from experimental games in rural India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    24. Anna Lunn, 2020. "Urban family ties and household latrines in rural India: A cross-sectional analysis of national data," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(7), pages 1-19, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Fitzsimons, Emla & Malde, Bansi & Mesnard, Alice & Vera-Hernández, Marcos, 2016. "Nutrition, information and household behavior: Experimental evidence from Malawi," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 113-126.
    2. Pascaline Dupas & Edward Miguel, 2016. "Impacts and Determinants of Health Levels in Low-Income Countries," NBER Working Papers 22235, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Orgill-Meyer, Jennifer & Pattanayak, Subhrendu K., 2020. "Improved sanitation increases long-term cognitive test scores," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    4. Elisabetta De Cao, 2015. "The Height Production Function from Birth to Age Two," Journal of Human Capital, University of Chicago Press, vol. 9(3), pages 329-363.
    5. Mesnard, Alice & Vera-Hernández, Marcos & Fitzsimons, Emla & Malde, Bansi, 2012. "Household Responses to Information on Child Nutrition: Experimental Evidence from Malawi," CEPR Discussion Papers 8915, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    6. Spears, Dean, 2020. "Exposure to open defecation can account for the Indian enigma of child height," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    7. Eduardo Fé & Bruce Hollingsworth, 2016. "Short- and long-run estimates of the local effects of retirement on health," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 179(4), pages 1051-1067, October.
    8. James G. MacKinnon, 2019. "How cluster‐robust inference is changing applied econometrics," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 52(3), pages 851-881, August.
    9. Bakhtiar, M. Mehrab & Guiteras, Raymond P. & Levinsohn, James & Mobarak, Ahmed Mushfiq, 2023. "Social and financial incentives for overcoming a collective action problem," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    10. Samantha Rawlings, 2012. "Gender, race, and heterogeneous scarring and selection effects of epidemic malaria on human capital," Economics Discussion Papers em-dp2012-01, Department of Economics, University of Reading.
    11. Gabriella Conti & Giacomo Mason & Stavros Poupakis, 2019. "Developmental origins of health inequality," IFS Working Papers W19/17, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    12. Patrick Opoku Asuming & Hyuncheol Bryant Kim & Armand Sim, 2021. "Selection and Behavioral Responses of Health Insurance Subsidies in the Long Run: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Ghana," Papers 2105.00617, arXiv.org.
    13. Cameron, Lisa & Chase, Claire & Haque, Sabrina & Joseph, George & Pinto, Rebekah & Wang, Qiao, 2021. "Childhood stunting and cognitive effects of water and sanitation in Indonesia," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 40(C).
    14. Gabriella Conti, 2013. "The Developmental Origins of Health Inequality," Research on Economic Inequality, in: Health and Inequality, volume 21, pages 285-309, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    15. Camille Boudot‐Reddy & Anita Mukherjee, 2021. "Improving the adoption of household health products: A sales experiment with chlorine tablets," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(3), pages 623-641, March.
    16. Laura Abramovsky & Britta Augsburg & Pamela Jervis & Bansi Malde & Angus Phimister, 2019. "Complementarities in the Production of Child Health," IFS Working Papers W19/15, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    17. Elisabetta De Cao, 2014. "The height production function from birth to maturity," CSAE Working Paper Series 2014-31, Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford.
    18. repec:dgr:rugsom:14018-eef is not listed on IDEAS
    19. repec:rdg:wpaper:em-dp2012-01 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Diane Coffey & Michael Geruso & Dean Spears, 2018. "Sanitation, Disease Externalities and Anaemia: Evidence From Nepal," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 128(611), pages 1395-1432, June.
    21. Griffen, Andrew S., 2016. "Height and calories in early childhood," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 20(C), pages 55-69.
    22. Coffey, Diane, 2015. "Early life mortality and height in Indian states," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 17(C), pages 177-189.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    child health; sanitation coverage; open defecation; India;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • O18 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Urban, Rural, Regional, and Transportation Analysis; Housing; Infrastructure

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ifs:ifsewp:15/32. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Emma Hyman (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ifsssuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.