Can Environmental Policy Reduce Infant Mortality? : Evidence from the Ganga Pollution Cases
In many developing countries, environmental quality remains low and policies to improve it have been inconsistently effective. This paper conducts a case study of environmental policy, focusing on an unprecedented ruling by the Supreme Court of Ind...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2016
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2016/08/26711804/can-environmental-policy-reduce-infant-mortality-evidence-ganga-pollution-cases http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25044 |
| Summary: | In many developing countries,
environmental quality remains low and policies to improve it
have been inconsistently effective. This paper conducts a
case study of environmental policy, focusing on an
unprecedented ruling by the Supreme Court of India, which
targeted industrial pollution in the Ganga River.
Difference-in-difference estimations indicate that the
ruling led to reductions in river pollution and one-month
infant mortality. To look at the mechanisms of impact, the
paper tests whether the identified health impact is fully
explained by changes in pollution induced by the policy, and
fails to reject that it indeed is. In so doing, the analysis
also quantifies the adverse impact of water pollution on
infant health and documents the persistence of such impacts
in downstream communities. |
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