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 geographical variations in soil characteristics that affect the feasibility of latrine construction, I find that this policy increases fecal contamination of rivers by 72%. Although the policy reduces diarrheal child mortality overall, this positive health effect is eliminated when upstream areas lack adequate wastewater infrastructure.
Municipal mergers that consolidate multiple municipalities can improve environmental quality by internalizing pollution spillovers but may also weaken pollution control due to coordination costs and political power imbalances between participating municipalities. We examine the environmental effect of municipal mergers by exploiting their staggered implementation in Japan, which halved the number of municipalities. We find that municipal mergers increase river pollution by 5.4%, persisting for 14 years. These effects are driven by equal-footing mergers with high coordination costs and incorporated municipalities with little political power. We find no evidence supporting alternative mechanisms, including changes in pollution spillover patterns and land use.
Extreme temperatures are known to negatively affect health in the short term, yet their persistent effects remain underexplored. This paper examines how extreme temperatures encourage adaptive investments in health technologies over time. Using data on temperature and latrine construction in rural India, I find that an additional cold or hot day cumulatively increases latrine investment by 1-10%. Heterogeneity analyses highlight the discomfort channel, where households construct latrines to avoid walking outside for open defecation under extreme temperatures. The health benefits from this increased latrine investment are comparable in magnitude to existing estimates of the negative impacts of extreme temperatures.
There is growing attention to the need for firms to ensure that their suppliers meet production standards (i.e., responsible sourcing). This practice is particularly prevalent in the apparel industry, as buyers—especially multinationals with well-known brands—often require their suppliers to comply with stringent environmental standards. We study how trading with global fashion brands affects the environmental performance of their suppliers in Bangladesh. Using a novel dataset that combines custom data with river water quality data, we find that an increase in the number of exporters to brand multinationals improves the river water quality surrounding these exporters. Our finding highlights the crucial role multinational buyers play in mitigating industrial pollution, particularly in developing countries with weaker regulatory enforcement.
Improving water access can reduce the burden of time spent on water collection and enhance child health. However, most evidence comes from interventions with limited scope, and it remains unclear how benefits are distributed between advantaged and disadvantaged groups when programs are scaled to fill regional or national coverage gaps. We examine the gendered and distributional impacts of India’s universal tap water policy. Exploiting temperature shocks that affect water demand, we find that the policy reduces water collection time, particularly for women and marginalized caste groups. At the same time, however, by examining district-level variations in tap water expansion, we identify an increase in child mortality, particularly among these marginalized groups. Our results suggest a possible quantity-quality tradeoff in scaling infrastructure and a need for more careful mitigation of potentially adverse behavioral responses.
Selected Works in Progress
The Holy Dip: Religion, River Pollution, and Health Consequences in India (with Moogdho Mahzab and Sheetal Sekhri)
Structural Transformation and Caste Discrimination in Village India (with Michael Neubauer and Shunsuke Tsuda)
Urban-Rural Sanitation Market and Child Mortality: Evidence from Interwar Tokyo (with Tatsuki Inoue)
Peer Effects and Misperceptions in Sanitation Use in Rural India (with Ujjayant Chakravorty and Takeshi Fukasawa)
VIIRS and the Future of Night Lights Data in Economics (with Paul Brimble, Axel Ezimendi-Larrinaga, and Adam Storeygard)
