Public Health Efforts and the Decline in Urban Mortality: Reply to Cutler and Miller

D. Mark Anderson (), Kerwin Kofi Charles () and Daniel I. Rees ()
Additional contact information
D. Mark Anderson: Montana State University
Kerwin Kofi Charles: Yale University
Daniel I. Rees: Universidad Carlos III de Madrid

No 12077, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This is a rejoinder to a comment written by Cutler and Miller on our recent paper, "Public Health Efforts and the Decline in Urban Mortality" (IZA DP No. 11773), which reanalyzes data used by Cutler and Miller to investigate the determinants of the urban mortality decline from 1900 to 1936. Two main results emerge from our reanalysis of their data: (1) correcting infant mortality counts reduces the estimated effect of filtration on infant mortality by two-thirds, from -43 log points to -13 log points; and (2) using a consistent method of the calculating the total mortality rate shrinks the estimated effect of filtration on total mortality by half, from -16 log points to -8 log points. In this rejoinder, we argue that the much-reduced estimate of the effect of water filtration on infant mortality is a dramatic and surprising departure from the consensus view in the literature. In addition, we show that the estimated effect of water filtration on total mortality is extremely fragile. Evidence of this fragility may also be found in recent work by Catillon, Cutler and Getzen (2018).

Keywords: pasteurization; filtration; chlorination; mortality; public health; sewage (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I15 I18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 25 pages
Date: 2019-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea and nep-ure
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Published - published as 'Re-Examining the Contribution of Public Health Efforts to the Decline in Urban Mortality: Reply' in: American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2022, 14 (2), 166-169.

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