Does piped water reduce diarrhea for children in rural India?

The impacts of public investments that directly improve children's health are theoretically ambiguous given that the outcomes also depend on parentally provided inputs. Using propensity score matching methods, we find that the prevalence and duration of diarrhea among children under five in rural India are significantly lower on average for families with piped water than for observationally identical households without it. However, our results indicate that the health gains largely by-pass children in poor families, particularly when the mother is poorly educated. Our findings point to the importance of combining water infrastructure investments with effective public action to promote health knowledge and income poverty reduction. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.