This paper combines 172 Demography and Health Survey data sets from 70 countries to estimate the effect of water and sanitation on child mortality and morbidity. The results show a robust association between access to water and sanitation technologies and both child morbidity and child...

Using household survey data from 40 developing countries, we estimate the mortality impact of improved water and sanitation access. We find that the average mortality reduction achievable by investment in water and sanitation infrastructure is 8 and 22 deaths per 1000 children born for basic and...

Continued population growth and increasing urbanization have led to the formation of large informal urban settlements in many developing countries in recent decades. The high prevalence of poverty, overcrowding, and poor sanitation observed in these settlements—commonly referred to as...

High urban mortality delayed transitions to low mortality in 19th century Europe, but an urban mortality advantage emerged as European transitions progressed into the 20th century. Recent analysis has suggested that high mortality in the rapidly growing urban slums of developing countries might...

The empirical analysis of poverty over time is still severely constrained by the available survey data in developing countries. In the past, this has led to a neglect of certain aspects of poverty dynamics or even biased assessments of poverty dynamics. This book explicitly takes into account...