About the Speaker:
Jeffrey S. Hammer is the Charles and Marie Robertson Visiting Professor of Economic Development at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public & International Affairs at Princeton University. He is also a Senior Non-Resident Scholar at the National Council of Applied Economic Research in Delhi. His main research interests are economic development in the areas of public economics, improving service delivery in general, though frequently in health and in measuring the quality of medical advice. Much of his recent research has been on India and other South Asian countries. Before Princeton, Dr. Hammer worked at The World Bank, the last three years in the New Delhi office. He was also on the core team of the 2004 World Development Report, “Making Services Work for Poor People.”
About the Lecture:
The paradox that most government expenditure and policy discussion on health in India concerns medical care is striking. This lecture is a brief look at three studies: interstate correlation of open defecation and health status, a randomized experiment in Maharashtra on the Total Sanitation Campaign, and the connection between the hygienic environment and water-borne illness in the slums of Delhi. In contrast to substantial health effects from improved sanitation, it is very difficult to find any effect of publicly provided curative care on overall health status.