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The child health implications of privatizing africa's urban water supply

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  • Kosec, Katrina

Abstract

Can private sector participation (PSP) in the piped water sector improve child health? I use child-level data from 39 African countries during 1986–2010 to show that PSP decreases diarrhea among urban-dwelling, under-five children by 2.6 percentage points, or 16% of its mean prevalence. Children from the poorest households benefit most. PSP is also associated with a 7.8 percentage point increase in school attendance of 7–17 year olds. Importantly, PSP increases usage of piped water by 9.7 percentage points, suggesting a possible causal channel explaining health improvements. To attribute causality, I exploit time-variation in the private water market share controlled by African countries’ former colonizers. A placebo analysis reveals that PSP does not affect respiratory illness, nor does it affect a control group of rural children.

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  • Kosec, Katrina, 2014. "The child health implications of privatizing africa's urban water supply," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 1-19.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jhecon:v:35:y:2014:i:c:p:1-19
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2014.01.006
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    Cited by:

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    3. Schady, Norbert, 2015. "Does Access to Better Water and Sanitation Infrastructure Improve Child Outcomes? Evidence from Latin America and the Caribbean," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 7369, Inter-American Development Bank.
    4. Antonio Estache, 2020. "Infrastructure “Privatization”: When Ideology Meets Evidence," Working Papers ECARES 2020-28, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    5. Patricia Augier & Marion Dovis & Charles Lai-Tong, 2016. "Better Access to Water, Better Children's Health: A Mirage?," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(1), pages 70-92, January.
    6. Ao, Chon-Kit, 2021. "Privatization of water supply and human capital accumulation," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    7. Lisa Bagnoli & Salvador Bertomeu & Antonio Estache & Maria Vagliasindi, 2020. "Are the Poor Better Off with Public or Private Utilities ?A Survey of the Academic Evidence on Developing Economies," Working Papers ECARES 2020-24, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    8. Awaworyi Churchill, Sefa & Ocloo, Janet Exornam & Siawor-Robertson, Diana, 2015. "Ethnic diversity makes me sick! An examination of ethnic diversity’s effect on health outcomes," EconStor Preprints 123721, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    9. Godwin K. Vondolia & Francis Mensah Asenso-Boadi, 2016. "Private Sector Participation in the Provision of Quality Drinking Water in Urban Areas of Ghana: What Do Households Want and Can Afford?," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 84(2), pages 245-259, June.
    10. Calzada, Joan & Iranzo Sancho, Susana, 2012. "Neither Private nor Public: The Effects of Communal Provision of Water on Child Health in Peru," Working Papers 2072/196649, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Department of Economics.
    11. Deutschmann, Joshua W. & Gars, Jared & Houde, Jean-François & Lipscomb, Molly & Schechter, Laura, 2023. "Privatization of public goods: Evidence from the sanitation sector in Senegal," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    12. Norbert Schady, 2015. "Does Access to Better Water and Sanitation Infrastructure Improve Child Outcomes? Evidence from Latin America and the Caribbean," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 92337, Inter-American Development Bank.
    13. Guo, Zijian & Kang, Hyunseung & Cai, T. Tony & Small, Dylan S., 2018. "Testing endogeneity with high dimensional covariates," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 207(1), pages 175-187.
    14. Sefa Awaworyi Churchill & Janet Exornam Ocloo & Diana Siawor-Robertson, 2017. "Ethnic Diversity and Health Outcomes," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 134(3), pages 1077-1112, December.
    15. Li, Li & Xiao, Yun, 2023. "Beyond boiling: The effect of in utero exposure to treated tap water on childhood health," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    16. Calzada, Joan & Iranzo, Susana, 2021. "Can communal systems work? The effects of communal water provision on child health in Peru," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    17. González, Felipe & Miguel, Edward, 2015. "War and local collective action in Sierra Leone: A comment on the use of coefficient stability approaches," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 30-33.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Water; Child health; Privatization; Infrastructure; Education;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • L33 - Industrial Organization - - Nonprofit Organizations and Public Enterprise - - - Comparison of Public and Private Enterprise and Nonprofit Institutions; Privatization; Contracting Out
    • L95 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Gas Utilities; Pipelines; Water Utilities
    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development

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