Poisoning the mind: Arsenic contamination of drinking water wells and children's educational achievement in rural Bangladesh

Arbeitspapier

Bangladesh has experienced the largest mass poisoning of a population in history owing to contamination of groundwater with naturally occurring inorganic arsenic. Prolonged drinking of such water risks development of diseases and therefore has implications for children's cognitive and psychological development. This study examines the effect of arsenic contamination of tubewells, the primary source of drinking water at home, on the learning outcome of school-going children in rural Bangladesh using recent nationally representative data on secondary school children. We unambiguously find a negative and statistically significant correlation between mathematics scores and arsenic-contaminated drinking tubewells at home, net of the child's socio-economic status, parental background and school specific unobserved correlates of learning. Similar correlations are found for an alternative measure of student achievement and subjective well-being (i.e. self-reported measure of life satisfaction), of the student. We conclude by discussing the policy implication of our findings in the context of the current debate over the adverse effect of arsenic poisoning on children.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 5716

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Analysis of Education ; Cultural Economics: Religion ; Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development ; Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
• Subject: drinking water pollution ; Madrasa ; subjective well-being ; Bangladesh

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Asadullah, M. Niaz ; Chaudhury, Nazmul
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
• (where): Bonn
• (when): 2011

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/51853
• URN: urn:nbn:de:101:1-201106013290
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:45 AM CET