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Clean water technologies and urban mortality in Sweden 1885-1925

Önnerfors, Martin LU (2015) EKHM51 20151
Department of Economic History
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
Önnerfors, Martin LU
supervisor
organization
course
EKHM51 20151
year
type
H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
subject
keywords
epidemiology, urban penalty, Sweden, waterborne disease, clean water technology, mortality decline, mortality
language
English
id
7439597
date added to LUP
2015-06-25 12:29:18
date last changed
2015-06-25 12:29:18
@misc{7439597,
  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}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Clean water technologies and urban mortality in Sweden 1885-1925}},
  year         = {{2015}},
}