Date of Graduation

Spring 5-22-2015

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in International and Development Economics (MSIDEC)

College/School

College of Arts and Sciences

Department/Program

Economics

First Advisor

Bruce Wydick

Second Advisor

Yaniv Stopnitzky

Abstract

Diarrheal disease is the second leading cause of death for children under age five, killing approximately 2,089 children a day (WHO, 2013). Clean water access, sanitation facilities, and good hygiene behavior are solutions to decreasing child mortality and morbidity caused by fecal contamination. I estimate the impact of borehole wells and a hygiene and sanitation program on diarrhea by creating a retrospective panel. I ask mothers to rank children from the most to least diarrhea when under the age of two and use this ranking to compare siblings, where at least one had been exposed to the program. The methodology causes bias in the dependent variable and I therefore do not find a statistically significant impact of borehole wells or the hygiene and sanitation program on diarrhea. I explore the program’s ability to change water and sanitation behavior and find the program increases water access and use. However, many households use multiple water sources and do not consistently treat water, which likely diminishes the effect of clean water.

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