RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 The Burden of Water Shortages on Informal Firms
JF Land Economics
JO Land Econ
FD University of Wisconsin Press
SP 91
OP 107
DO 10.3368/le.95.1.91
VO 95
IS 1
A1 Islam, Asif
YR 2019
UL http://le.uwpress.org/content/95/1/91.abstract
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)