Typhoid Fever, Water Quality, and Human Capital Formation

Abstract

New water purification technologies led to large mortality declines by helping eliminate typhoid fever and other waterborne diseases. We examine how this affected human capital formation using early-life typhoid fatality rates to proxy for water quality. We merge city-level data to individuals linked between the 1900 and 1940 Censuses. Eliminating early-life exposure to typhoid fever increased later-life earnings by one percent and educational attainment by one month. Instrumenting for typhoid fever using typhoid rates from cities that lie upstream produces results nine times larger. The increase in earnings from eliminating typhoid fever more than offset the cost of elimination.

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

“…Like previous researchers (CM-2005;Ferrie and Troesken 2008;Beach et al 2016), ACR find that filtering the municipal water supply substantially reduced typhoid mortality. More generally, however, our results suggest that public health interventions did not drive the dramatic reductions in infant and total mortality that occurred over the period .…”

“…For examples, seeGordon (2014),Costa (2015),Beach et al (2016) andAlsan and Goldin (2018). See also the literature reviews byZwane and Kremer (2007) andDupas and Miguel (2016), who cite CM's estimate of the effect of clean water on child, rather than infant, mortality.5Costa (2015, pp.…”

Watersheds in Child Mortality: The Role of Effective Water and Sewerage Infrastructure, 1880 to 1920

“…Seminal contributions include Cain and Rotella (2001), on water and sewerage infrastructure by major city; Condran and Cheney (1982), on mortality changes within Philadelphia; Condran and Crimmins-Gardner (1978), demonstrating the importance of public works in the decrease of waterborne diseases; Ferrie and Troesken (2008), on clean water and a general decline of nonwaterborne diseases; and Meeker (1972), a pioneering piece on waterborne disease and river spillovers. See also Beach, Ferrie, Saavedra and Troesken (2016), on long-run payoffs to water purification; Galiani, Gertler and Schargrodsky (2005), on privatization of water services in Argentina; and Troesken (2001Troesken ( , 2002 on race-specific typhoid mortality and water provision. How cities began to clean up their acts in the early twentieth century is told in part by Cutler and Miller (2006), which emphasizes the growth of financial markets.…”

The Effect of Municipal Water Filtration on Children's School Enrollment and Employment in American Cities

“…To investigate the long-term effect of clean water, Xu and Zhang (2014) employ a large drinking water treatment program in rural China and shows a positive effect on schooling attainments. 8 Similarly, Beach et al (2014) use typhoid fatality rate as a proxy of water quality, then link males in 1900 and 1940 in the U.S. They find that eradicating early-life exposure to typhoid fever had positive effect on years of schooling and later life earnings.…”

“…To date, there have been only a few studies that look at the possible effects of water on educational outcomes (Devoto et al 2012;Bhalotra and Venkataramani 2013;Beach et al 2014;Kosec 2014; Xu and Zhang 2014). This study adds to this under-studied topic by using a different source of variation in exposure to clean water: municipal water filtration policies in the United States.…”