Payal Hathi|Sabrina Haque|Lovey Pant|Diane Coffey|Dean Spears
Place and Child Health: The Interaction of Population Density and Sanitation in Developing Countries
World Bank|The University of Texas at Austin|Indian Statistical Institute|Indian Statistical Institute|The University of Texas at Austin
long literature demography debated importance place health especially childrens health study assess whether importance dense settlement infant mortality child height moderated exposure local sanitation behavior open defecation ie without toilet latrine worse infant mortality child height population density greater poor sanitation important mechanism population density influences child health outcomes present two complementary analyses using newly assembled data sets represent two points tradeoff external internal validity first concentrate external validity studying infant mortality child height large international childlevel data set 172 demographic health surveys matched census population density data 1800 subnational regions second concentrate internal validity studying child height bangladeshi districts using new data set constructed gis techniques allows us control fixed effects high level geographic resolution find statistically robust quantitatively comparable interaction sanitation population density approaches open defecation externalities important child health outcomes people live closely together