Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/51853 
Year of Publication: 
2011
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 5716
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
Bangladesh has experienced the largest mass poisoning of a population in history owing to contamination of groundwater with naturally occurring inorganic arsenic. Prolonged drinking of such water risks development of diseases and therefore has implications for children's cognitive and psychological development. This study examines the effect of arsenic contamination of tubewells, the primary source of drinking water at home, on the learning outcome of school-going children in rural Bangladesh using recent nationally representative data on secondary school children. We unambiguously find a negative and statistically significant correlation between mathematics scores and arsenic-contaminated drinking tubewells at home, net of the child's socio-economic status, parental background and school specific unobserved correlates of learning. Similar correlations are found for an alternative measure of student achievement and subjective well-being (i.e. self-reported measure of life satisfaction), of the student. We conclude by discussing the policy implication of our findings in the context of the current debate over the adverse effect of arsenic poisoning on children.
Subjects: 
drinking water pollution
Madrasa
subjective well-being
Bangladesh
JEL: 
I21
Z12
O12
O15
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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