Sanitation, Disease Externalities and Anaemia: Evidence From Nepal
研究发现，改善社区卫生设施能显著提高儿童血红蛋白水平、预防贫血，揭示了露天排便这一全球十亿人实践的外部性。
Anaemia impairs physical and cognitive development in children and reduces human capital accumulation. The prior economics literature has focused on the role of inadequate nutrition in causing anaemia. This article is the first to show that sanitation, a public good, significantly contributes to preventing anaemia. We identify effects by exploiting rapid and differential improvement in sanitation across regions of Nepal between 2006 and 2011. Within regions over time, cohorts of children exposed to better community sanitation developed higher haemoglobin levels. Our results highlight a previously undocumented externality of open defaecation, which is today practiced by over a billion people worldwide.