Access to Piped Water and Human Capital Formation

700 million people in the developing world lack access to clean water and around 2.5 billion have no access to improved sanitation facilities. Since missing access to improved water and appropriate sanitation facilities seriously compromises health, this situation limits the chances to prosper and to develop full capabilities for more than one third of the world population. Lacking access to improved water and sanitation increases the likelihood of water-related diseases such as diarrhea, helminths, and malnutrition, which can have tremendous adverse effects on human capital formation. This project analyzes the impact of access to piped water on human capital formation as measured by test scores from standardized school exams in Brazilian primary schools. It has been shown that the eradication of water-related diseases and malnutrition impacts positively on years of schooling, school enrollment, school attendance, and literacy of children and young adults. However, there has been no evidence so far on the effects of access to clean water on human capital formation itself. We find that children in urban areas with access to tap water at home perform significantly better at school: They achieve test scores that are 14 percent of the standard deviation higher than the average test score without access. The effect is conditional on the education of the mother and turns out to be insignificant in rural areas. Our results capture the long term effect of the reduced incidence of water-related diseases for children with access to tap water. We exploit school-specific variation across years as well as a comprehensive vector of socioeconomic background variables to identify this effect.

contact person: Dipl.-Volksw. Julia Alexa Barde
Phone: 0761 203-9327
Email: julia.alexa.barde@vwl.uni-freiburg.de

Start of project: 15.01.2011
End of project: 01.07.2014

Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg
Schulze G, Barde J

Actual Research Report

• Barde J
• Walkiewicz J

health, piped water, cognitive development, human capital formation, access to clean water and educational attainment, test scores

• Barde, Julia A., Walkiewicz, Juliana: Access to Piped Water and Human Capital Formation - Evidence from Brazilian Primary Schools IEP Discussion Paper Series, University of Freiburg, 2014. : https://www.iep.uni-freiburg.de/diskussionspapiere