Local industrial shocks and infant mortality

Local industrial development has the potential to improve health and well-being,while also damaging health through exposure to harmful pollution. It is an empiricalquestion which of these effects dominate. Exploiting the quasi-experimental expansionof African large-scale gold mining, I find that local infant mortality rates decreaseby more than 50% alongside rapid economic growth. The instantaneous reduction iscomparable to overall gains in infant survival rates in the study countries from 1970 totoday. The results are robust to migration. Local industrial development—despite riskof pollution—may be an effective tool to reduce infant mortality in developing countries