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Happiness on Tap: Piped Water Adoption in Urban Morocco

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  • Florencia DEVOTO

    () (Paris School of Economics and J-PAL)

  • Esther DUFLO

    () (MIT and NBER)

  • Pascaline DUPAS

    () (UCLA and NBER)

  • William PARIENTE

    () (UNIVERSITE CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES))

  • Vincent PONS

    () (MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology))

Abstract

We study the demand for household water connections in urban Morocco, and the effect of such connections on household welfare. In the northern city of Tangiers, among homeowners without a private connection to the city’s water grid, a random subset was offered a simplified procedure to purchase a household connection on credit (at a zero percent interest rate). Take-up was high, at 69%. Because all households in our sample had access to the water grid through free public taps (often located fairly close to their homes), household connections did not lead to any improvement in the quality of the water households consumed; and despite significant increase in the quantity of water consumed, we find no change in the incidence of waterborne illnesses. Nevertheless, we find that households are willing to pay a substantial amount of money to have a private tap at home. Being connected generates important time gains, which are used for leisure and social activities, rather than productive activities. Because water is often a source of tension between households, household connections improve social integration and reduce conflict. Overall, within 6 months, self-reported well-being improved substantially among households in the treatment group, despite the financial cost of the connection. Our results suggest that facilitating access to credit for households to finance lump sum quality-of-life investments can significantly increase welfare, even if those investments do not result in income or health gains.

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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES) in its series Discussion Papers (IRES - Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales) with number 2011013.

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Length: 39
Date of creation: 01 Apr 2011
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:ctl:louvir:2011013

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  1. Sebastian Galiani & Paul Gertler & Ernesto Schargrodsky, 2002. "Water for Life: The Impact of the Privatization of Water Services on Child Mortality," Working Papers 54, Universidad de San Andres, Departamento de Economia, revised Sep 2005.
  2. Pascaline Dupas, 2010. "Short-Run Subsidies and Long-Run Adoption of New Health Products: Evidence from a Field Experiment," NBER Working Papers 16298, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  3. Matias D. Cattaneo & Sebastian Galiani & Paul J. Gertler & Sebastian Martinez & Rocio Titiunik, 2009. "Housing, Health, and Happiness," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 1(1), pages 75-105, February.
  4. 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.
  5. Gamper-Rabindran, Shanti & Khan, Shakeeb & Timmins, Christopher, 2010. "The impact of piped water provision on infant mortality in Brazil: A quantile panel data approach," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(2), pages 188-200, July.
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  1. Happiness on Tap: Piped Water Adoption in Urban Morocco
    by maximorossi in NEP-LTV blog on 2011-04-25 13:21:43
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Cited by:
  1. Nguyen Viet, Cuong, 2011. "Does Piped Water Improve Household Welfare? Evidence from Vietnam," MPRA Paper 40776, University Library of Munich, Germany.
  2. Elena Gross & Isabel Günther & Youdi Schipper, 2013. "Women: Walking and Waiting for Water The Time Value of Public Water Supply," Courant Research Centre: Poverty, Equity and Growth - Discussion Papers 134, Courant Research Centre PEG.
  3. Costa-Gomes, Miguel A. & Huck, Steffen & Weizsäcker, Georg, 2012. "Beliefs and actions in the trust game: Creating instrumental variables to estimate the causal effect," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Economics of Change SP II 2012-302, Social Science Research Center Berlin (WZB).
  4. Taryn Dinkelman & Sam Schulhofer-Wohl, 2012. "Migration, congestion externalities, and the evaluation of spatial investments," Working Papers 700, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
  5. Esther Duflo, 2011. "Women’s Empowerment and Economic Development," NBER Working Papers 17702, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  6. Pascaline Dupas & Jonathan Robinson, 2011. "Why Don't the Poor Save More? Evidence from Health Savings Experiments," NBER Working Papers 17255, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  7. Tobias Lechtenfeld, 2012. "Why does piped water not reduce diarrhea for children? Evidence from urban Yemen," Courant Research Centre: Poverty, Equity and Growth - Discussion Papers 119, Courant Research Centre PEG.

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