IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/tpr/restat/v105y2023i6p1352-1365.html

For Want of a Cup: The Rise of Tea in England and the Impact of Water Quality on Mortality

Author

Listed:
  • Francisca M. Antman

    (University of Colorado Boulder)

Abstract

This paper explores the impact of water quality on mortality by exploiting a natural experiment: the rise of tea consumption in eighteenth century England. This resulted in an unintentional increase in consumption of boiled water, thereby reducing mortality rates. The methodology uses two identification strategies tying areas with lower initial water quality to larger declines in mortality rates after tea drinking became widespread and following larger volumes of tea imports. Results are robust to the inclusion of controls for income and access to trade. The hypothesis is further bolstered by suggestive evidence from cause specific deaths and early childhood mortality.

Suggested Citation

  • Francisca M. Antman, 2023. "For Want of a Cup: The Rise of Tea in England and the Impact of Water Quality on Mortality," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 105(6), pages 1352-1365, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:tpr:restat:v:105:y:2023:i:6:p:1352-1365
    DOI: 10.1162/rest_a_01158
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1162/rest_a_01158
    Download Restriction: Access to PDF is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1162/rest_a_01158?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or

    for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Antman, Francisca M. & Flynn, James M., 2024. "When beer is safer than water: Beer availability and mortality from waterborne illnesses," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    2. Ponce, Anthony, 2024. "Policy Spillovers to Biodiversity: The Impacts of Interventions for Water Quality on Bird Abundance," 2024 Annual Meeting, July 28-30, New Orleans, LA 343885, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    3. repec:ags:aaea22:343885 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Kabeer Bora, 2023. "Importing sobrie'tea': Understanding the tea trade during the Industrial Revolution," Working Paper Series, Department of Economics, University of Utah 2023_06, University of Utah, Department of Economics.
    5. repec:ehl:lserod:127145 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Hall, Ursula, 2025. "Who flushed first? What characterised the early adoption patterns of private drainage in London, 1812-1847?," Economic History Working Papers 127145, London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • N33 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - Europe: Pre-1913
    • I15 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health and Economic Development
    • Q25 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation - - - Water
    • Q56 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environment and Development; Environment and Trade; Sustainability; Environmental Accounts and Accounting; Environmental Equity; Population Growth

    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:tpr:restat:v:105:y:2023:i:6:p:1352-1365. 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: The MIT Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://direct.mit.edu/journals .

    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.