Neighborhood Sanitation and Infant Mortality

Michael Geruso and Dean Spears

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2018, vol. 10, issue 2, 125-62

Abstract: In this paper, we shed new light on a long-standing puzzle: in India, Muslim children are substantially more likely than Hindu children to survive to their first birthday, even though Indian Muslims have lower wealth, consumption, educational attainment, and access to state services. Contrary to the prior literature, we show that the observed mortality advantage accrues not to Muslim households themselves but rather to their neighbors, who are also likely to be Muslim. Investigating mechanisms, we provide a collage of evidence suggesting externalities due to poor sanitation are a channel linking the religious composition of neighborhoods to infant mortality.

JEL-codes: I12 I14 J13 O15 Q53 R23 Z12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
Note: DOI: 10.1257/app.20150431
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (61)

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Working Paper: Neighborhood Sanitation and Infant Mortality (2015)
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