Identifying the Costs of a Public Health Success: Arsenic Well Water Contamination and Productivity in Bangladesh

This paper exploits the recent molecular genetics evidence on the genetic basis of arsenic excretion and unique information on family links among respondents living in different environments from a large panel survey within a theoretical framework incorporating optimizing behavior to uncover the costs of arsenic poisoning in Bangladesh. In particular, it provides new estimates of the effects of the ingestion and retention of inorganic arsenic on direct measures of cognitive and physical capabilities as well as on the schooling attainment, occupational structure, entrepreneurship and incomes of the rural Bangladesh population. It also provides new estimates of the effects of the consumption of foods grown and cooked in arsenic contaminated water on individual arsenic concentrations.