Wells, Water, and Welfare: The Impact of Access to Groundwater on Rural Poverty and Conflict | Zendy

Sheetal Sekhri | Zendy

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Wells, Water, and Welfare: The Impact of Access to Groundwater on Rural Poverty and Conflict

Author(s) -

Sheetal Sekhri

Publication year - 2014

Publication title -

american economic journal applied economics

Language(s) - English

Resource type - Journals

SCImago Journal Rank - 12.996

H-Index - 82

eISSN - 1945-7782

pISSN - 1945-7790

DOI - 10.1257/app.6.3.76

Subject(s) - groundwater , poverty , welfare , exploit , irrigation , cutoff , surface water , water resource management , geography , rural area , agriculture , yield (engineering) , hydrology (agriculture) , environmental science , agricultural economics , economics , economic growth , geology , political science , environmental engineering , computer science , archaeology , physics , law , market economy , ecology , geotechnical engineering , computer security , quantum mechanics , biology , thermodynamics

This paper evaluates the impact of access to groundwater on poverty using data from rural India. The estimation exploits the fact that the technology required to access groundwater changes exogenously due to constraints imposed by laws of physics at a depth of eight meters. I find that rural poverty in areas where depth from surface is below the cutoff is 9 to 10 percent higher. Using survey data for a subsample of villages, I also show that disputes over irrigation water increase by 25 percent around the cutoff. Historical endowments of groundwater facilitate adoption of yield enhancing technologies over the long-run.

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