Expanding Access to Clean Water for the Rural Poor: Experimental Evidence from Malawi

Pascaline Dupas, Basimenye Nhlema, Zachary Wagner, Aaron Wolf and Emily Wroe

No 27570, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Using data from an 18-month randomized trial, we estimate large and sustained impacts on water purification and child health of a program providing monthly coupons for free water treatment solution (diluted chlorine) to households with young children. The program is more effective and much more cost-effective than asking Community Health Workers (CHWs) to distribute free chlorine to households during routine monthly visits. That is because only 40% of households make use of free chlorine, targeting through CHWs is worse than self-targeting through coupon redemption, and water treatment promotion by CHWs does not increase chlorine use among free chlorine beneficiaries. Non- use of free chlorine is driven by households who have a protected water source and those who report that chlorine makes water taste bad.

JEL-codes: D10 D12 I11 I12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-exp and nep-hea
Note: DEV EH
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Published as Pascaline Dupas & Basimenye Nhlema & Zachary Wagner & Aaron Wolf & Emily Wroe, 2023. "Expanding Access to Clean Water for the Rural Poor: Experimental Evidence from Malawi," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, vol 15(1), pages 272-305.

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w27570.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Expanding Access to Clean Water for the Rural Poor: Experimental Evidence from Malawi (2023)
Working Paper: Expanding Access to Clean Water for the Rural Poor: Experimental Evidence from Malawi (2020)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nbr:nberwo:27570

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w27570

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().