Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/90023 
Year of Publication: 
2013
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 7833
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
We exploit exogenous variation in the risk of waterborne disease created by implementation of a major water reform in Mexico in 1991 to investigate impacts of infant exposure on indicators of cognitive development and academic achievement in late childhood. We estimate that a one standard deviation reduction in childhood diarrhea mortality rates results in about a 0.1 standard deviation increase in test scores, but only for girls. We show that a reason for the gender differentiated impacts is that the water reform induces parents to make complementary investments in education that favor girls, consistent with their comparative advantage in skilled occupations. The results provide novel evidence of the potential for clean water provision to narrow test score gaps across countries and, within countries, across gender.
Subjects: 
water
diarrhea
cognitive development
test scores
early life health interventions
brain-brawn
gender
Mexico
dynamic complementarity
JEL: 
I38
J16
I12
I14
I15
I24
I25
H51
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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