Data and Code for: A Watershed Moment: The Clean Water Act and Birth Weight

Principal Investigator(s):  View help for Principal Investigator(s) Michelle Marcus, Vanderbilt University; Patrick Flynn, Vanderbilt University

Version:  View help for Version V1

Name File Type Size Last Modified
  GIS_data 01/12/2023 02:47:PM
  analysis 01/12/2023 01:53:PM
  clean_data 01/12/2023 02:18:PM
  documentation 01/12/2023 02:20:PM
  raw_data 01/12/2023 06:22:PM
documentation_data_analysis.pdf application/pdf 55.3 KB 01/10/2023 10:26:AM
documentation_data_cleaning.pdf application/pdf 114.7 KB 01/10/2023 12:24:PM

Project Citation: 

Marcus, Michelle, and Flynn, Patrick. Data and Code for: A Watershed Moment: The Clean Water Act and Birth Weight. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2023-01-13. https://doi.org/10.3886/E183922V1

Project Description

Summary:  View help for Summary
The Clean Water Act (CWA) significantly improved surface water quality, but at a cost exceeding the estimated benefits. We quantify the effect of the CWA on a direct measure of health. Using a difference-in-differences framework, we compare birth weight upstream and downstream from wastewater treatment facilities before and after CWA grant receipt. Pollution only decreased downstream from facilities required to upgrade their treatment technology, and we leverage this additional variation with a triple difference. CWA grants increased average birth weight by 8 grams.

Scope of Project

Subject Terms:  View help for Subject Terms clean water act; birth weight; surface water pollution; wastewater treatment
Geographic Coverage:  View help for Geographic Coverage United States


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Published Versions

V1 [2023-01-13]

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