Impact of a randomized controlled trial in arsenic risk communication on household water-source choices in Bangladesh

cg.contributor.affiliationInternational Water Management Instituteen
cg.contributor.crpWater, Land and Ecosystems
cg.coverage.countryBangladesh
cg.coverage.iso3166-alpha2BD
cg.coverage.regionAsia
cg.coverage.regionSouthern Asia
cg.coverage.subregionAraihazar Upazila
cg.creator.identifierSoumya Balasubramanya: 0000-0001-8035-7306
cg.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeem.2012.07.006en
cg.issn0095-0696en
cg.issue2en
cg.journalJournal of Environmental Economics and Managementen
cg.volume65en
dc.contributor.authorBennear, L.en
dc.contributor.authorTarozzi, A.en
dc.contributor.authorPfaff, A.en
dc.contributor.authorBalasubramanya, Soumyaen
dc.contributor.authorAhmed, K.M.en
dc.contributor.authorGeen, A. vanen
dc.date.accessioned2014-06-13T14:47:16Zen
dc.date.available2014-06-13T14:47:16Zen
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10568/40260
dc.titleImpact of a randomized controlled trial in arsenic risk communication on household water-source choices in Bangladeshen
dcterms.abstractWe conducted a randomized controlled trial in rural Bangladesh to examine how household drinking-water choices were affected by two different messages about risk from naturally occurring groundwater arsenic. Households in both randomized treatment arms were informed about the arsenic level in their well and whether that level was above or below the Bangladesh standard for arsenic. Households in one group of villages were encouraged to seek water from wells below the national standard. Households in the second group of villages received additional information explaining that lower-arsenic well water is always safer and these households were encouraged to seek water from wells with lower levels of arsenic, irrespective of the national standard. A simple model of household drinking-water choice indicates that the effect of the emphasis message is theoretically ambiguous. Empirically, we find that the richer message had a negative, but insignificant, effect on well-switching rates, but the estimates are sufficiently precise that we can rule out large positive effects. The main policy implication of this finding is that a one-time oral message conveying richer information on arsenic risks, while inexpensive and easily scalable, is unlikely to be successful in reducing exposure relative to the status-quo policy.en
dcterms.accessRightsLimited Access
dcterms.bibliographicCitationBennear, L.; Tarozzi, A.; Pfaff, A.; Balasubramanya, Soumya; Ahmed, K. M.; van Geen, A. 2013. Impact of a randomized controlled trial in arsenic risk communication on household water-source choices in Bangladesh. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 65(2):225?240. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeem.2012.07.006en
dcterms.extentpp. 225-240en
dcterms.issued2013-03
dcterms.languageen
dcterms.licenseCopyrighted; all rights reserved
dcterms.publisherElsevieren
dcterms.subjectdrinking wateren
dcterms.subjectgroundwateren
dcterms.subjectwellsen
dcterms.subjectarsenicen
dcterms.subjecthealth hazardsen
dcterms.subjecthouseholdsen
dcterms.subjectmodelsen
dcterms.typeJournal Article

Files