Does Access to Improved Sanitation Reduce Childhood Diarrhea in Rural India?

Health Economics (2012) DOI: 10.1002/hec.2809

39 Pages Posted: 7 Nov 2012

See all articles by Santosh Kumar

Santosh Kumar

University of Washington; Harvard University

Sebastian Vollmer

University of Goettingen (Göttingen)

Date Written: March 1, 2011

Abstract

Almost nine million children under 5 years of age die every year. Diarrhea is considered to be the second leading cause of under-five mortality in developing countries. About one out of five deaths is caused by diarrhea. In this paper, we use the newly available data set District Level Household Survey 3 to quantify the impact of access to improved sanitation on diarrheal morbidity for children less than 5 years of age in India. Using propensity score matching, we find that access to improved sanitation reduces the risk of contracting diarrhea by 2.2 percentage points. There is considerable heterogeneity in the impacts of improved sanitation. We find statistically insignificant treatment effects for children in low or middle socioeconomic status households and for girls; however, boys and children in high socioeconomic status households experienced economically significant treatment effects. The magnitude of the treatment effect differs largely by hygiene behavior.

Keywords: sanitation, diarrhea, propensity score matching, infrastructure, India

JEL Classification: I0, O1

Suggested Citation

Kumar, Santosh and Vollmer, Sebastian, Does Access to Improved Sanitation Reduce Childhood Diarrhea in Rural India? (March 1, 2011). Health Economics (2012) DOI: 10.1002/hec.2809, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2011175

Santosh Kumar (Contact Author)

University of Washington ( email )

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Harvard University ( email )

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Sebastian Vollmer

University of Goettingen (Göttingen) ( email )

Platz der Göttinger Sieben 3
Göttingen, 37073
Germany

HOME PAGE: http://sebastianvollmer.wordpress.com/

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