This website uses cookies.

By clicking the "Accept" button or continuing to browse our site, you agree to first-party and session-only cookies being stored on your device to enhance site navigation and analyze site performance and traffic. For more information on our use of cookies, please see our Privacy Policy.

  1. Home
  2. Journals
  3. American Economic Review
  4. Forthcoming Articles
  5. The Value of Clean Water: Experimental Evidence from Rural India

American Economic Review

ISSN 0002-8282 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7981 (Online)

The Value of Clean Water: Experimental Evidence from Rural India

  • Fiona Burlig
  • Amir Jina
  • Anant Sudarshan
American Economic Review (Forthcoming)

Abstract

Over 2 billion people lack clean drinking water. Existing solutions face high costs (piped water) or low demand (point-ofuse chlorine). Using a 60,000 household cluster-randomized experiment, we test an alternative approach: decentralized treatment and home-delivery of clean water to the rural poor. At low prices, take-up exceeds 90 percent, sustained throughout the experiment. High prices reduce take-up but are privately profitable. We experimentally recover revealed-preference measures of valuation. Willingness-to-pay is several times higher than prior indirect estimates; willingness-to-accept is larger and exceeds marginal cost. Self-reported health measures improve accordingly. On a costper- DALY basis, free water delivery regimes appear highly costeffective.

Downloads