IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wbk/wbrwps/6737.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Sanitation and externalities : evidence from early childhood health in rural India

Author

Listed:
  • Andres, Luis A.
  • Briceno, Bertha
  • Chase, Claire
  • Echenique, Juan A.

Abstract

This paper estimates two sources of benefits related to sanitation infrastructure access on early childhood health: a direct benefit a household receives when moving from open to fixed-point defecation or from unimproved sanitation to improved sanitation, and an external benefit (externality) produced by the neighborhood's access to sanitation infrastructure. The paper uses a sample of children under 48 months in rural areas of India from the Third Round of District Level Household Survey 2007-08 and finds evidence of positive and significant direct benefits and concave positive external effects for both improved sanitation and fixed-point defecation. There is a 47 percent reduction in diarrhea prevalence between children living in a household without access to improved sanitation in a village without coverage of improved sanitation and children living in a household with access to improved sanitation in a village with complete coverage. One-fourth of this benefit is due to the direct benefit leaving the rest to external gains. Finally, all the benefits from eliminating open defecation come from improved sanitation and not other sanitation solutions.

Suggested Citation

  • Andres, Luis A. & Briceno, Bertha & Chase, Claire & Echenique, Juan A., 2014. "Sanitation and externalities : evidence from early childhood health in rural India," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6737, The World Bank.
  • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6737
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2014/01/06/000158349_20140106091805/Rendered/PDF/WPS6737.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Das, Jishnu & Hammer, Jeffrey & Sánchez-Paramo, Carolina, 2012. "The impact of recall periods on reported morbidity and health seeking behavior," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(1), pages 76-88.
    2. Gunther, Isabel & Fink, Gunther, 2010. "Water, sanitation and children's health : evidence from 172 DHS surveys," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5275, The World Bank.
    3. Dean Spears, 2012. "How much international variation in child height can sanitation explain?," Working Papers 1438, Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Center for Health and Wellbeing..
    4. Dean Spears, 2012. "How much international variation in child height can sanitation explain?," Working Papers 1436, Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Research Program in Development Studies..
    5. 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.
    6. Cameron, Lisa & Shah, Manisha & Olivia, Susan, 2013. "Impact evaluation of a large-scale rural sanitation project in Indonesia," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6360, The World Bank.
    7. Spears, Dean, 2013. "How much international variation in child height can sanitation explain ?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6351, The World Bank.
    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. Calderon, Cesar & Serven, Luis, 2014. "Infrastructure, growth, and inequality : an overview," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7034, The World Bank.
    2. Derek Headey & Giordano Palloni, 2019. "Water, Sanitation, and Child Health: Evidence From Subnational Panel Data in 59 Countries," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 56(2), pages 729-752, April.
    3. Borja-Vega,Christian & Briceno,Bertha & Garcia Vicente,Fernando, 2015. "Can intense exposure to hand-washing and hygiene information campaigns affect children's socio-emotional skills ? evidence from Senegal," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7472, The World Bank.
    4. 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.
    5. Pritha Chatterjee & Rockli Kim & Akshay Swaminathan & Rakesh Kumar & S.V. Subramanian, 2019. "From Administrative to Political Evaluation: Estimating Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Indicators for Parliamentary Constituencies in India," Journal of Development Policy and Practice, , vol. 4(2), pages 188-212, July.
    6. Mook Bangalore & Stephane Hallegatte & Laura Bonzanigo & Tamaro Kane & Marianne Fay & Ulf Narloch & David Treguer & Julie Rozenberg & Adrien Vogt-Schilb, 2016. "Shock Waves," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 22787.
    7. Hutton, Guy & Patil, Sumeet & Kumar, Avni & Osbert, Nicolas & Odhiambo, Francis, 2020. "Comparison of the costs and benefits of the Clean India Mission," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    8. Youngmee Tiffany Jung & Ryan James Hum & Wendy Lou & Yu-Ling Cheng, 2017. "Effects of neighbourhood and household sanitation conditions on diarrhea morbidity: Systematic review and meta-analysis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(3), pages 1-17, March.
    9. Andres,Luis Alberto & Biller,S. A. Dan & Herrera Dappe,Matias, 2014. "Infrastructure gap in South Asia : inequality of access to infrastructure services," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7033, The World Bank.

    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. 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.
    2. Hammer, Jeffrey & Spears, Dean, 2016. "Village sanitation and child health: Effects and external validity in a randomized field experiment in rural India," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 135-148.
    3. 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.
    4. Vyas, Sangita & Kov, Phyrum & Smets, Susanna & Spears, Dean, 2016. "Disease externalities and net nutrition: Evidence from changes in sanitation and child height in Cambodia, 2005–2010," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 23(C), pages 235-245.
    5. Spears, Dean, 2020. "Exposure to open defecation can account for the Indian enigma of child height," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    6. 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).
    7. Derek Headey & Giordano Palloni, 2019. "Water, Sanitation, and Child Health: Evidence From Subnational Panel Data in 59 Countries," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 56(2), pages 729-752, April.
    8. 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.
    9. Makate, Marshall & Makate, Clifton, 2016. "Is poor sanitation killing more children in rural Zimbabwe? Results of propensity score matching method," MPRA Paper 72831, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 02 Aug 2016.
    10. Diane Coffey & Ashwini Deshpande & Jeffrey Hammer & Dean Spears, 2019. "Local Social Inequality, Economic Inequality, and Disparities in Child Height in India," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 56(4), pages 1427-1452, August.
    11. Derek Headey & David Stifel & Liangzhi You & Zhe Guo, 2018. "Remoteness, urbanization, and child nutrition in sub‐Saharan Africa," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 49(6), pages 765-775, November.
    12. Matthias Kalkuhl & Irfan Mujahid, 2014. "A Typology of Indicators on Production Potential, Efficiency and FNS Risk," FOODSECURE Technical papers 4, LEI Wageningen UR.
    13. Lara Cockx & Nathalie Francken, 2016. "Evolution and impact of EU aid for food and nutrition security: a review," Working Papers of LICOS - Centre for Institutions and Economic Performance 572519, KU Leuven, Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), LICOS - Centre for Institutions and Economic Performance.
    14. Evan Borkum & Dana Rotz & Anu Rangarajan & Swetha Sridharan & Sukhmani Sethi & Mercy Manoranjini & Lakshmi Ramakrishnan & Lalit Dandona & Rakhi Dandona & Priyanka S. Kochar & G. Anil Kumar & Priyanka , "undated". "Midline Findings from the Evaluation of the Ananya Program in Bihar," Mathematica Policy Research Reports 74ef56ababd9412b82ef906fc, Mathematica Policy Research.
    15. Simone Passarelli & Dawit Mekonnen & Elizabeth Bryan & Claudia Ringler, 2018. "Evaluating the pathways from small-scale irrigation to dietary diversity: evidence from Ethiopia and Tanzania," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 10(4), pages 981-997, August.
    16. Indunil De Silva & Sudarno Sumarto, 2018. "Child Malnutrition in Indonesia: Can Education, Sanitation and Healthcare Augment the Role of Income?," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(5), pages 837-864, July.
    17. Hasina Rakotomanana & Joel J. Komakech & Christine N. Walters & Barbara J. Stoecker, 2020. "The WHO and UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) Indicators for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene and Their Association with Linear Growth in Children 6 to 23 Months in East Africa," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(17), pages 1-14, August.
    18. Headey, Derek & Hoddinott, John & Ali, Disha & Tesfaye, Roman & Dereje, Mekdim, 2015. "The Other Asian Enigma: Explaining the Rapid Reduction of Undernutrition in Bangladesh," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 749-761.
    19. Bridgman, Grace & von Fintel, Dieter, 2022. "Stunting, double orphanhood and unequal access to public services in democratic South Africa," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 44(C).
    20. 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).

    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:wbk:wbrwps:6737. 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: Roula I. Yazigi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dvewbus.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.