PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Islam, Asif
TI  - The Burden of Water Shortages on Informal Firms
AID  - 10.3368/le.95.1.91
DP  - 2019 Feb 01
TA  - Land Economics
PG  - 91--107
VI  - 95
IP  - 1
4099  - http://le.uwpress.org/content/95/1/91.short
4100  - http://le.uwpress.org/content/95/1/91.full
SO  - Land Econ2019 Feb 01; 95
AB  - The informal sector in developing economies is a significant source of livelihood for a sizable portion of the population. This study uncovers the effect of poor water infrastructure on the productivity of informal firms. This is achieved using firm-level data for 12 developing economies between 2009 and 2014. The findings indicate that an increase of one standard deviation of the total duration of water shortages in a month can lead to annual average losses of about 14.5% of the monthly sales per worker for the average informal firm in the sample that uses water for business activities. (JEL O17, Q25)