Identifying the Costs of a Public Health Success: Arsenic Well Water Contamination and Productivity in Bangladesh

Individual Variations in Inorganic Arsenic Metabolism Associated with AS3MT Genetic Polymorphisms

Mark M Pitt, Mark Rosenzweig and M Nazmul Hassan

The Review of Economic Studies, 2021, vol. 88, issue 5, 2479-2526

Abstract: We exploit recent molecular genetics evidence on the genetic basis of arsenic excretion and unique information on family links among respondents living in different environments from a large panel survey to uncover the hidden costs of arsenic poisoning in Bangladesh. We provide for the first time estimates of the effects of the ingestion and retention of inorganic arsenic on direct measures of cognitive and physical capabilities as well as on the schooling attainment, occupational structure, entrepreneurship, and incomes of the rural Bangladesh population. We also provide new estimates of the effects of the consumption of foods grown and cooked in arsenic-contaminated water on individual arsenic concentrations. The estimates are based on arsenic biomarkers obtained from a sample of members of rural households in Bangladesh who are participants in a long-term panel survey following respondents and their coresident household members over a period of 26 years.

Keywords: Arsenic; Productivity; Health; Genome; I15; I18; O1; I25 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Working Paper: Identifying the Cost of a Public Health Success: Arsenic Well Water Contamination and Productivity in Bangladesh (2015)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:restud:v:88:y:2021:i:5:p:2479-2526.

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