 Mines: The local wealth and health effects of mineral mining in developing countriesJan von der Goltz () and Prabhat Barnwal Journal of Development Economics, 2019, vol. 139, issue C, 1-16 Abstract: We assess health and wealth impacts of mineral mining using micro-data from about 800 mines in 44 developing countries. Gains in asset wealth (0.3 standard deviations) coexist with a higher incidence of health conditions linked to heavy metal toxicity: anemia among women (ten percentage points), and stunting in young children (five percentage points). Consistent results emerge from a range of distinct identification strategies. Two difference-in-difference tests exploit information on mineral and pollutant characteristics to show that the observed health effects are due to pollution: impacts arise only near mines where metal contamination is to be expected, and the recovery of blood hemoglobin levels in women after childbirth shows a characteristic signature of lead toxicity. Our results add to the nascent literature on health-wealth tradeoffs near industrial operations in developing countries. Keywords: Mining; Health; Development (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:deveco:v:139:y:2019:i:c:p:1-16 DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2018.05.005 Access Statistics for this article Journal of Development Economics is currently edited by M. R. Rosenzweig More articles in Journal of Development Economics from Elsevier |
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