CGD Europe Sandwich Seminar: Unearthing toxic waste dumping in the Horn of Africa (London, UK)

Illegal disposal of toxic waste has become an issue of concern in both developing and developed countries. Recent ancedotal evidence has highlighted that hazardous waste is shipped from developed countries and illegally dumped in Africa, in particular in the area of the Horn of Africa, during road construction works. The potential health and economic consequences on the local population are devastating. 

In this seminar, Caterina Gennaioli (along with Gaia Narciso, Trinity College Dublin) uses extensive data from the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) and GPS data to analyse the relationship between recently-built roads and the health status of households. They disentangle the effect of common road pollution from the effect of hazardous waste by focusing on specific health measures which the medical literature has linked to toxic waste exposure: infant mortality, severe anaemia and a person's haemoglobin level.