IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/aejapp/v6y2014i3p76-102.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Wells, Water, and Welfare: The Impact of Access to Groundwater on Rural Poverty and Conflict

Author

Listed:
  • Sheetal Sekhri

Abstract

This paper evaluates the impact of access to groundwater on poverty using data from rural India. The estimation exploits the fact that the technology required to access groundwater changes exogenously due to constraints imposed by laws of physics at a depth of eight meters. I find that rural poverty in areas where depth from surface is below the cutoff is 9 to 10 percent higher. Using survey data for a subsample of villages, I also show that disputes over irrigation water increase by 25 percent around the cutoff. Historical endowments of groundwater facilitate adoption of yield enhancing technologies over the long-run.

Suggested Citation

  • Sheetal Sekhri, 2014. "Wells, Water, and Welfare: The Impact of Access to Groundwater on Rural Poverty and Conflict," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 6(3), pages 76-102, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aejapp:v:6:y:2014:i:3:p:76-102
    Note: DOI: 10.1257/app.6.3.76
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi=10.1257/app.6.3.76
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: http://www.aeaweb.org/aej/app/app/0603/2013-0016_app.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: http://www.aeaweb.org/aej/app/data/0603/2013-0016_data.zip
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: http://www.aeaweb.org/aej/app/ds/0603/2013-0016_ds.zip
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.
    ---><---

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D74 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Conflict; Conflict Resolution; Alliances; Revolutions
    • I32 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Measurement and Analysis of Poverty
    • O13 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Agriculture; Natural Resources; Environment; Other Primary Products
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
    • O18 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Urban, Rural, Regional, and Transportation Analysis; Housing; Infrastructure
    • Q15 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Land Ownership and Tenure; Land Reform; Land Use; Irrigation; Agriculture and Environment
    • Q16 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - R&D; Agricultural Technology; Biofuels; Agricultural Extension Services

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:aea:aejapp:v:6:y:2014:i:3:p:76-102. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Michael P. Albert (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeaaaea.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.