Events of ADRI (Patna - Ranchi)

ADRI Lecture Series on Clean Water and Human Capital Investment
28 Apr 2021

Speaker : Dr. Chon Kit Ao, National Cheng Kung University

Title: Clean Water and Human Capital Investment

Speaker: Dr. Chon Kit Ao, National Cheng Kung University

Date and Time: 28th April 2021 at 12.30 (IST)

Zoom Link Meeting: Meeting Link - Zoom

Meeting ID: 885 2462 8018

Abstract: Numerous studies show that access to clean water reduces child mortality and morbidity, but little work has been done on the consequences of schooling and child labor. The effects are theoretically ambiguous because healthier children could go to school or go to work. I examine the effect of the municipal installation of water filtration plants on school enrollment and child labor in American cities from 1880-1920. Using a difference-in-differences approach, I find that municipal water filtration has a positive effect on school enrollment. Also, I find a negative effect on child labor, but it is not significant at conventional levels.

Speaker Profile: Chon Kit Ao is an Assistant Professor in Economics at the National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan. His primary areas of interest are labor economics, development, and economics of education. He did his Ph.D. at the University of Houston. Before this, he did his master's at National Taiwan University and Bachelors's at the University of Macau. In 2015, he got IPUMS Research Award for best work by a graduate student using IPUMS-USA data for his paper on "Clean Water and Human Capital Investment.