Happiness on Tap: Piped Water Adoption in Urban Morocco
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Duflo_Happiness on.pdf
Size
3.01 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
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Author(s)
Devoto, Florencia
Duflo, Esther
Dupas, Pascaline
Pariente, William
Pons, Vincent
Date Issued
November 2012
Journal
American Economic Journal: Economic Policy
Publisher
American Economic Association
Citation
Devoto, Florencia et al. “Happiness on Tap: Piped Water Adoption in Urban Morocco.” American Economic Journal: Economic Policy 4.4 (2012): 68–99.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Connecting private dwellings to the water main is expensive and typically cannot be publicly financed. We show that households' willingness to pay for a private connection is high when it can be purchased on credit, not because a connection improves health but because it increases the time available for leisure and reduces inter- and intra-household conflicts on water matters, leading to sustained improvements in well-being. Our results suggest that facilitating access to credit for households to finance lump sum quality-oflife investments can significantly increase welfare, even if those investments do not result in any health or income gains. (JEL D12, I31, O12, O13, O18, Q25)
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Economics
Terms of Use
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1257/pol.4.4.68
