Working Papers
1. Unintended Consequences of Sanitation Investment: Negative Externalities on Water Quality and Health in India [Osaka University ISER Moriguchi Prize, World Bank Blog Post, VoxDev Article] Submitted
Developing countries have increased sanitation investment to improve child health. However, scaling up latrine construction can cause water pollution externalities owing to insufficient infrastructure for the treatment of fecal sludge, offsetting the direct health benefits. I estimate the negative externalities of an Indian sanitation policy that subsidized the construction of over 100 million latrines. Exploiting the geographical variation in soil characteristics that affect the feasibility of latrine construction, I find that this policy increases river pollution by 72%. Although the policy reduces diarrheal child mortality overall, this positive health effect is eliminated when upstream areas lack adequate wastewater infrastructure.
2. The Impact of Municipal Mergers on Pollution Control: Evidence from River Pollution in Japan (with Michiyoshi Toya)
Municipal mergers, aimed at improving local public services, can not only internalize pollution spillovers affecting neighboring areas, but also weaken pollution control due to coordination costs and political power imbalances. We examine the environmental impact of municipal mergers by exploiting the staggered implementation of Japan’s mergers, which reduced municipalities by half. We find that municipal mergers increase river pollution by 5.5%, persisting for 14 years. These effects are concentrated in equal-footing mergers with high coordination costs and in incorporated municipalities with little political power. We find no evidence supporting alternative mechanisms, including changes in pollution spillover patterns and land use.
3. Extreme Temperatures and Adaptive Health Investment: Evidence from Sanitation Behaviors in India
Extreme temperatures negatively affect economic activity and health in the short run, but little is known about the persistent effects of temperature shocks over time. This paper shows that extreme temperatures can persistently improve human health by inducing adaptive investment in health technologies in rural India. Using district-level daily weather and annual latrine construction data, I find that an additional day with extremely hot or cold temperatures within a three-year period cumulatively increases latrine investment by 1-10%. The heterogeneity analysis by baseline temperatures underscores the role of the discomfort channel, whereby households construct latrines to avoid walking outside for open defecation under extreme temperatures. My estimates suggest that an additional day with extreme temperatures could decrease diarrheal mortality rates by 0.12-0.90% through increasing latrine investment.
Publications
The Poverty Impacts of Labor Heat Stress in West Africa under a Warming Climate (with Wajiha Saeed, Iman Haqiqi, Qinqin Kong, Matthew Huber, Jonathan Buzan, Shun Chonabayashi, Thomas Hertel), Earth’s Future, 10, e2022EF002777, 2022
Works in Progress
- VIIRS and the Future of Night Lights Data in Economics (with Paul Brimble, Axel Ezimendi-Larrinaga, and Adam Storeygard)
- The Holy Dip: Religion, River Pollution, and Health Consequences in India (with Moogdho Mim Mahzab and Sheetal Sekhri)
- Does Trade with Multinationals Induce Greener Production? Evidence from the Bangladesh Fashion Industry (with Kazi Iqbal, Moogdho Mim Mahzab, and Haruka Takayama)
- Caste Segregation and Spatial Misallocation in Village India (with Michael Neubauer and Shunsuke Tsuda)
- Gendered and Distributional Impacts of Clean Water Access: Evidence from Tap Water Policy in India (with Marc Jeuland and YuJung Lee)