In this research note, we show that heritable fertility is not sufficient for positive long-term population growth, for empirical and theoretical reasons. This paper has been accepted at Demography.

This study estimates and decomposes life expectancy differentials along lines of caste, religion, and indigenous identity in India, home to some of the largest populations of marginalized social groups in the world. This paper has been published in PNAS.

What are the child health and human capital consequences of India’s large coal power expansion? Using variation in local coal capacity within place across cohorts, I find that exposure to a median-sized coal plant at birth is associated with a 0.1 standard deviation child height deficit. This paper has been accepted at Journal of Human Resources.

We examine why households are slow to adopt clean fuels in rural north India, and find that patriarchal gender norms and attitudes encourage the use of solid fuels in this region.

We present survey evidence from rural north India showing persistent solid fuel use despite increases in liquefied petroleum gas ownership.

We provide the first evidence that individual-level questions find more open defecation than household-level questions.

Although rural latrine ownership increased considerably over this period, open defecation remains very common.

After controlling for potential confounders, we find that children born in a month with higher ambient air pollution are shorter.

This paper estimates how much the rate of open defecation would be reduced if rural households in regions that have a higher fraction of Hindus, where open defecation is still common, altered their behaviour to reflect that of non-Hindu households in regions that are predominantly non-Hindu, where the rate of open defecation is much lower.

We find that households that are richer or better educated, that have certain demographic properties, or that improved their homes between 2005 and 2012 were more likely to switch to using a latrine or toilet. However, each of these effect sizes is small.

We link widespread open defecation in rural north India to beliefs, values, and norms about purity, pollution, caste, and untouchability that cause people to reject affordable latrines.

We find that indoor air quality while using an air purifier in New Delhi is frequently worse than in cities with moderate pollution, and often worse than levels observed even in polluted cities.

The reduction in children’s exposure to open defecation over this period can statistically account for much or all of the increase in average child height between 2005 and 2010.

Based on new survey data collected in Bihar, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, we find that over 40% of households with a working latrine have at least one member who defecates in the open.