Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Clean water technologies and urban mortality in Sweden 1885-1925

ÖNNERFORS, MARTIN LU (2015)
Abstract
Using a newly digitised historical dataset on clean water technologies in Swedish cities, this study tries to find the causal effect (and the magnitude of this effect) of the introduction of clean water technology on mortality in urban areas. Using urban mortality data on a county level, and clean water access data on city level, both OLS, fixed effects, and difference-in-differences models are tried in order to isolate an effect. The result of the models show that it is not possible to capture the mortality (neither general nor disease-specific) variation using this dataset: the general mortality decline in cities during this period is confounded by too many omitted variables apart from clean water technology. This study is a first step... (More)
Using a newly digitised historical dataset on clean water technologies in Swedish cities, this study tries to find the causal effect (and the magnitude of this effect) of the introduction of clean water technology on mortality in urban areas. Using urban mortality data on a county level, and clean water access data on city level, both OLS, fixed effects, and difference-in-differences models are tried in order to isolate an effect. The result of the models show that it is not possible to capture the mortality (neither general nor disease-specific) variation using this dataset: the general mortality decline in cities during this period is confounded by too many omitted variables apart from clean water technology. This study is a first step in the process, but to come closer to a reliable estimate, sharper variables (both dependent and independent) and closer analysis is needed. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
supervisor
organization
publishing date
type
Thesis
publication status
published
subject
keywords
epidemiology, urban penalty, Sweden, waterborne disease, clean water technology, mortality decline, mortality
pages
42 pages
publisher
Department of Economic History, Lund University
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
853cbcf7-1222-4c7b-9d2f-8fa9e451554c
alternative location
https://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/search/publication/7439597
date added to LUP
2017-09-26 11:32:46
date last changed
2018-11-21 21:34:47
@misc{853cbcf7-1222-4c7b-9d2f-8fa9e451554c,
  abstract     = {{Using a newly digitised historical dataset on clean water technologies in Swedish cities, this study tries to find the causal effect (and the magnitude of this effect) of the introduction of clean water technology on mortality in urban areas. Using urban mortality data on a county level, and clean water access data on city level, both OLS, fixed effects, and difference-in-differences models are tried in order to isolate an effect. The result of the models show that it is not possible to capture the mortality (neither general nor disease-specific) variation using this dataset: the general mortality decline in cities during this period is confounded by too many omitted variables apart from clean water technology. This study is a first step in the process, but to come closer to a reliable estimate, sharper variables (both dependent and independent) and closer analysis is needed.}},
  author       = {{ÖNNERFORS, MARTIN}},
  keywords     = {{epidemiology; urban penalty; Sweden; waterborne disease; clean water technology; mortality decline; mortality}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{Department of Economic History, Lund University}},
  title        = {{Clean water technologies and urban mortality in Sweden 1885-1925}},
  url          = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/search/publication/7439597}},
  year         = {{2015}},
}