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Who Should Own and Control Urban Water Systems? Historical Evidence from England and Wales

Author

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  • Brian Beach
  • Werner Troesken
  • Nicola Tynan

Abstract

Nearly 40% of England’s privately built waterworks were municipalised in the late 19th century. We examine how this affected public health by pairing annual mortality data for over 600 registration districts, spanning 1869 to 1910, with detailed waterworks information. Identification is aided by both institutional hurdles and idiosyncratic delays in the municipalisation process. Municipalisation lowered deaths from typhoid fever, a waterborne disease, by nearly 20% but deaths from non-waterborne causes were unaffected. Results are also robust to the adoption of several strategies that control for the possibility of mean reversion and other potential confounds.

Suggested Citation

  • Brian Beach & Werner Troesken & Nicola Tynan, 2016. "Who Should Own and Control Urban Water Systems? Historical Evidence from England and Wales," NBER Working Papers 22553, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:22553
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Werner Troesken, 2003. "Municipalizing American Waterworks, 1897--1915," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 19(2), pages 373-400, October.
    2. Marcella Alsan & Claudia Goldin, 2019. "Watersheds in Child Mortality: The Role of Effective Water and Sewerage Infrastructure, 1880–1920," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 127(2), pages 586-638.
    3. Daron Acemoglu & Suresh Naidu & Pascual Restrepo & James A. Robinson, 2019. "Democracy Does Cause Growth," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 127(1), pages 47-100.
    4. David M. Cutler & Grant Miller, 2006. "Water, Water Everywhere. Municipal Finance and Water Supply in American Cities," NBER Chapters, in: Corruption and Reform: Lessons from America's Economic History, pages 153-183, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Lionel Kesztenbaum & Jean-Laurent Rosenthal, 2014. "Income versus Sanitation; Mortality Decline in Paris, 1880-1914," PSE Working Papers halshs-01018594, HAL.
    6. Sebastian Galiani & Paul Gertler & Ernesto Schargrodsky, 2005. "Water for Life: The Impact of the Privatization of Water Services on Child Mortality," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 113(1), pages 83-120, February.
    7. Beach, Brian & Ferrie, Joseph & Saavedra, Martin & Troesken, Werner, 2016. "Typhoid Fever, Water Quality, and Human Capital Formation," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 76(1), pages 41-75, March.
    8. David Cutler & Grant Miller, 2005. "The role of public health improvements in health advances: The twentieth-century United States," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 42(1), pages 1-22, February.
    9. Werner Troesken, 2004. "Water, Race, and Disease," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262201488, December.
    10. Robert Millward & Sally Sheard, 1995. "The urban fiscal problem, 1870-1914: government expenditure and finance in England and Wales," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 48(3), pages 501-535, August.
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    12. Brian Beach & W. Walker Hanlon, 2018. "Coal Smoke and Mortality in an Early Industrial Economy," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 128(615), pages 2652-2675, November.
    13. Troesken, Werner, 2001. "Race, Disease, And The Provision Of Water In American Cities, 1889–1921," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 61(3), pages 750-776, September.
    14. Troesken, Werner, 1999. "Typhoid Rates and the Public Acquisition of Private Waterwork, 1880–1920," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 59(4), pages 927-948, December.
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    Cited by:

    1. Jonathan Chapman, 2021. "Interest Rates, Sanitation Infrastructure, and Mortality Decline in Nineteenth-Century England and Wales," Working Papers 0218, European Historical Economics Society (EHES).
    2. Toke S. Aidt & Romola J. Davenport & Felix Gray, 2023. "New perspectives on the contribution of sanitary investments to mortality decline in English cities, 1845–1909," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 76(2), pages 624-660, May.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • H51 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Government Expenditures and Health
    • H54 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Infrastructures
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • N13 - Economic History - - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations - - - Europe: Pre-1913

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