Sewers’ diffusion and the decline of mortality: The case of Paris, 1880–1914

Lionel Kesztenbaum and Jean-Laurent Rosenthal

Journal of Urban Economics, 2017, vol. 98, issue C, 174-186

Abstract: It is common to argue that water infrastructure innovations improve life expectancy. Yet the benefits of clean water depend on a mechanism to dispose of waste water. We draw on the historical experience of a large industrial city to estimate the impact of the spread of the sewer system. Using a longitudinal data set on mortality and rents for each of Paris’ 80 neighborhoods we show that sanitation contributed several years to life expectancy. These results point out the multiplicity of infrastructure needed to help decrease mortality.

Keywords: Differential mortality; Wealth; Urbanization; Paris; Sanitation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I14 I15 N33 N93 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (33)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0094119016000139
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
Working Paper: Sewers’ diffusion and the decline of mortality: The case of Paris, 1880–1914 (2017)
Working Paper: Sewers’ diffusion and the decline of mortality: The case of Paris, 1880–1914 (2017)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:juecon:v:98:y:2017:i:c:p:174-186

DOI: 10.1016/j.jue.2016.03.001

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Urban Economics is currently edited by S.S. Rosenthal and W.C. Strange

More articles in Journal of Urban Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().