Publication: Housing, Health, and Happiness
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Date
2009
ISSN
19457731
Published
2009
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We investigate the impact of a large-scale Mexican program to replace dirt floors with cement floors on child health and adult happiness. We find that replacing dirt floors with cement significantly improves the health of young children measured by decreases in the incidence of parasitic infestations, diarrhea, and the prevalence of anemia, and an improvement in children's cognitive development. Additionally, we find significant improvements in adult welfare measured by increased satisfaction with their housing and quality of life, as well as by lower scores on depression and perceived stress scales.
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Publication Housing, Health, and Happiness(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2007-04)Despite the importance of housing for people's well-being, there has been little work done to assess the causal impact of housing and housing improvement programs on health and welfare. In this paper the authors help fill this gap by investigating the impact of a large-scale effort by the Mexican government to replace dirt floors with cement floors on child health and adult happiness. They find that replacing dirt floors with cement floors significantly reduces parasitic infestations in young children, reduces diarrhea, reduces anemia, and improves cognitive development. Finally, they also find that this program leave adults substantially better off, as measured by satisfaction with their housing and quality of life and by their significantly lower rates of depression and perceived stress.Publication There's More to Life Than Money: Exploring the Levels/Growth Paradox in Income and Health(2009)This paper discusses historical and recent cross-country evidence relating income to measures of health. After a review of the literature on income and the quality of life, the paper looks at long-term historical evidence on the link between income change and health indicators. Using data on life expectancy, infant mortality and income for a small subset of largely wealthy countries over the 1913-1999 period, the paper examines correlations between income and health at period start and end as well as using the growth of the variables. Using a larger set of data over the period 1975-2000, the paper repeats these tests, as well as looking for any evidence of a larger impact of income, when different data are used or the sample is split. Results suggest a strong cross-country link between income and health and considerable evidence of global improvements over time, but a comparatively weak relationship between improvements in income and improvements in health, even over the very long term. The paper discusses a model based on technology and institutions that might account for such results as well as some preliminary evidence in favour of such a model.Publication Health as a Family Matter : Do Intra-household Education Externalities Matter for Maternal and Child Health?(2008)This paper is concerned with the role of education as a determinant of health care choices. The central premise of the paper is that utilisation of health services is determined not solely by an individual's own education, but rather by a notion of effective education, which incorporates the educational attainment of other household members. The paper sets out a general framework for representing intra-household education externalities, and proposes a number of specific hypotheses concerning the way in which the education of different household members affects health care choices. These hypotheses are tested on data from Mozambique, focusing on maternity services, child immunisations, and child malnutrition. We draw four major conclusions from the analysis. First, while maternal education seems to be the education variable of primary importance for the health service and malnutrition variables under consideration, the education of other household members does have a significant and sometimes large effect. This is true not only for the spouse, but also the education of other individuals residing in the household. Second, the analysis suggests that while the education of the person (non-spouse) in the household with the highest level of education is important, the level of education of additional household members does not, as a rule, affect the use of services or child health outcomes. Third, the data provide no evidence of a gender difference in education externalities. Fourth, we examine the merits of two alternative representations of the education externality, but are unable to conclude unambiguously in favour of one specification over the other.Publication Why Should We Care about Child Labor? The Education, Labor Market, and Health Consequences of Child Labor(2009-10)Despite the extensive literature on the determinants of child labor, the evidence on the consequences of child labor on outcomes such as education, labor, and health is limited. We evaluate the causal effect of child labor participation among children in school on these outcomes using panel data from Vietnam and an instrumental variables strategy. Five years subsequent to the child labor experience we find significant negative impacts on education, and also find a higher probability of wage work for those young adults who worked as children while attending school. We find few significant effects on health.Publication Impact Evaluation in Practice, First Edition(World Bank, 2011)The Impact Evaluation in Practice handbook is a comprehensive and accessible introduction to impact evaluation for policymakers and development practitioners. The book incorporates real-world examples to present practical guidelines for designing and implementing evaluations. Readers will gain an understanding of the uses of impact evaluation and the best ways to use evaluations to design policies and programs that are based on evidence of what works most effectively. The handbook is divided into three sections: Part One discusses what to evaluate and why; Part Two outlines the theoretical underpinnings of impact evaluation; and Part Three examines how to implement an evaluation. Case studies illustrate different methods for carrying out impact evaluations.
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