Access to Water as a Determinant of Women’s Work and Child Outcomes

Gayatri Koolwal, World Bank Group
Dominique van de Walle, World Bank Group

A common claim is that investments in water infrastructure can enhance poor rural women’s participation in market-based work or time spent on child care. We propose a new approach for dealing with the endogeneity of infrastructure placement and enable a test of the proposition that reducing women’s time in water collection will augment their participation and time in income earning activities. We also test for impacts on child schooling and health outcomes.