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Infant Health, Women's Fertility, and Rural Electrification in the United States, 1930–1960

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 April 2018

Joshua Lewis
Joshua Lewis*
Affiliation:
Joshua Lewis is Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, University of Montreal. 3150, rue Jean-Brillant #6032, Montreal, QC, H3T 1N8. E-mail: joshua.lewis@umontreal.ca.
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Abstract

From 1930 to 1960 rural communities, mainly in the U.S. South and Southwest, gained access to electricity. In addition to lights, the benefits included easier clothes washing, refrigeration, and pumped water. This article uses differences in the timing of electricity access across rural counties to study the effects on infant mortality and fertility. Rural electrification led to substantial reductions in infant mortality but had little effect on women's fertility. The increase in electricity access between 1930 and 1960 can account for 15 to 19 percent of the decline in rural infant mortality during this period.

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The Journal of Economic History , Volume 78 , Issue 1 , March 2018 , pp. 118 - 154
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 2018 

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Footnotes

I am very grateful to my PhD advisors Dwayne Benjamin, Robert McMillan, Aloysius Siow, and Mark Stabile for their support and guidance. I thank Price Fishback and three anonymous referees for detailed comments and suggestions. I also thank Ran Abramitzky, Martha Bailey, Andriana Bellou, Leah Boustan, Gustavo Bobonis, Emanuela Cardia, Karen Clay, William Collins, Shari Eli, Raphael Godefroy, Claudia Goldin, Gillian Hamilton, Frank Lewis, Valerie Ramey, Edson Severnini, Matthew Turner, and seminar participants at the Canadian Network for Economic History in Ottawa, Carleton University, Carnegie Mellon University, Dalhousie University, Northwestern University, Queen's University, Simon Fraser University, University of Delaware, University of Montreal, University of Miami, and University of Toronto for valuable comments. Funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council is gratefully acknowledged.

Due to the Journal's conflict of interest policy, this paper was handled by a former editor.

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