Working Paper: NBER ID: w29678
Authors: Brian Beach; John Parman; Martin H. Saavedra
Abstract: U.S. cities invested heavily in water and sewer infrastructure throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These investments improved public health and quality of life by helping U.S. cities control typhoid fever and other waterborne diseases. We show that segregated cities invested in water infrastructure earlier but were slower to reach universal access and slower to eliminate typhoid fever. We develop a theoretical model that illustrates how segregation, by facilitating the exclusion of Black households from water and sewer systems, explains these seemingly paradoxical findings.
Keywords: segregation; water infrastructure; public health; typhoid fever; urban economics
JEL Codes: H4; J1; N3
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Segregation (R28) | Earlier investments in water infrastructure (H54) |
| Segregation (R28) | Slower elimination of typhoid fever (I19) |
| Segregation (R28) | Exclusion of black households from water access (R28) |
| Exclusion of black households from water access (R28) | Slower elimination of typhoid fever (I19) |
| City planners' preferences for serving predominantly white neighborhoods (R23) | Exclusion of black households from water access (R28) |