Are wet babies healthy babies?

Does rainfall improve health for children in developing countries? Sharon L. Maccini and Dean Yang (2008) hypothesize that higher rainfall will lead to higher incomes for rural household and higher incomes allows increased food purchases and more disposable income to be made available for health care purchases. The authors find that in Indonesia, “[w]omen with…

Poverty and Health in Developing Countries

Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo find that for rural households, the probability that the mother is alive is 36 percentage points higher if the family has a daily per capita expenditures (DPCE) of $6 to $10 versus a DCPE of $1 to $2.  Using a panel data set specification, the authors also find that adults…

Mobile Phone Microscope

The Economist (“Doctor on Call“) has an shows that mobile phones may have another use for doctors: a microscope. “Mr Maamari is a member of a research team led by Dan Fletcher, a professor of bioengineering at the University of California, Berkeley, which has developed a cheap attachment to turn the digital camera on many…

Out of Poverty

Paul Polak’s book Out of Poverty could have just as easily been titled “How to get rich: a guide for small-time farmers in developing countries” or “Marketing to dollar-a-day earners.” Polak’s book states that donations –especially those run through the developing country government–will not end poverty. They have not so far. One reason is that…

Healthcare Super Bowl: Public vs. Private Providers

Diarrheal disease is a leading cause of childhood mortality in many developing countries. The best treatment when diarrhea strikes is to give the patient Oral Rehydration Solution (ORS). Who provides better care for this disease, public or private providers? A paper in Health Economics by Waters, Hatt and Black (2008) looks at data from the…

WTO adopts blue toilet seat for its logo

Yes, its true. The WTO has adopted a blue toilet seat for its logo. This is not surprising, however: the World Toilet Organization–you didn’t think I was talking about the World Trade Organization, did you?–is dedicated to improving sanitation issues around the world. While the blue toilet seat logo, may be amusing, the WTO’s goal…

Fighting Diarrheal Diseases in Developing Countries

One of the UN Millennium Goals is to halve by 2015 the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation. We know that large-scale investments in piped water have dramatic impacts on reducing childhood mortality. Piped water, however, may be prohibitively expensive for the nations to provide to rural residents…

Income Inequality and Health

The Economist‘s Free Exchange blog has some interesting commentary on income inequality and health (“Healthy, wealthy and wise“).  The post talks about Angus Deaton’s Spring 2003 NBER Reporter Commentary.  In the Reporter, Mr. Deaton states the following: “[In a study by Christina Paxon and I], We focused on the idea that health is determined by…