The Impact of Piped Water Provision on Infant Mortality in Brazil: A Quantile Panel Data Approach

Shanti Gamper-Rabindran, Shakeeb Khan and Christopher Timmins

No 10-04, Working Papers from Duke University, Department of Economics

Abstract: We examine the impact of piped water on the under-1 infant mortality rate (IMR) in Brazil using a novel econometric procedure for the estimation of quantile treatment effects with panel data. The provision of piped water in Brazil is highly correlated with other observable and unobservable determinants of IMR - the latter leading to an important source of bias. Instruments for piped water provision are not readily available, and fixed effects to control for time invariant correlated unobservables are invalid in the simple quantile regression framework. Using the quantile panel data procedure in Chen and Khan (2007), our estimates indicate that the provision of piped water reduces infant mortality by significantly more at the higher conditional quantiles of the IMR distribution than at the lower conditional quantiles (except for cases of extreme underdevelopment). These results imply that targeting piped water intervention in areas with higher conditional quantiles of the IMR, when accompanied by other basic public health inputs, can achieve significantly greater reductions in infant mortality.

Keywords: Infant mortality; piped water supply; quantile with panel data; heterogenous program impact; distribution of public goods (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H41 I18 Q53 Q56 Q58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 52
Date: 2010
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (82)

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Related works:
Journal Article: The impact of piped water provision on infant mortality in Brazil: A quantile panel data approach (2010)
Working Paper: The Impact of Piped Water Provision on Infant Mortality in Brazil: A Quantile Panel Data Approach (2008)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:duk:dukeec:10-04

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