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Abstract
Small-scale water purification facilities are economically viable for developing countries with limited capital and skills and with a high proportion of rural population to supply safe drinking water. However, their effectiveness has been under-studied. Using the case of Korea in the 1960s, this study investigates the effects of small-scale water supply interventions on population health and human capital formation. By exploiting the timing and geographic variations in the installation of small-scale water facilities, we estimate that the intervention substantially reduced the incidence of typhoid fever, and that eliminating early-life exposure to typhoid fever was beneficial to human capital formation.