Behavioral Adaptation to Improved Environmental Quality: Evidence From a Sanitation Intervention
利用老挝随机分配厕所建设补贴的实验，发现村庄卫生设施普及后，居民烧开水的行为显著减少，这可能是对水质处理健康收益下降的适应，节省的时间主要惠及女童和妇女。
This paper investigates behavioral adaptation to local improvements in environmental quality. Using exogenous variation in village sanitation coverage generated by the randomised allocation of financial incentives to latrine construction in Lao PDR, we find that the generalized adoption of improved sanitation led to significant reductions in the practice of boiling water for drinking. Our analysis suggests that this change is likely a behavioral response to a reduction in the health benefits associated with treating water, which decline and eventually become negligible as local adoption of improved sanitation increases. Estimates of the value of time savings associated with the reduction in water boiling suggest that this adaptation is an additional important benefit of sanitation investments, most of which likely accrues to girls and women.