Essays on the Environmental and Behavioral Determinants of Health Outcomes

This dissertation consists of three essays on environmental, behavioral, and health economics. Chapter 1 presents an experimental study of how individuals use group-labeled disaggregated information to form subjective beliefs about their own prospects under uncertainty. This study finds consistent evidence of a "category specificity heuristic": individuals assume that information about others who share observable characteristics with them, such as gender, age, race, or educational attainment, is more informative than information about others who do not, even in cases where there is no plausible causal relationship between group membership and outcomes. Implications for individuals' beliefs about health risks are discussed. Chapter 2 presents an observational study of the relationship between potable water availability and heat-related mortality in South Africa which demonstrates that increased potable water supply is an effective community-level adaptation to excess heat. The findings of this study suggest that investments to increase the reliability and accessibility of potable water, especially in developing contexts, may ameliorate the long-run mortality consequences of climate change. Chapter 3 presents a study which establishes a causal link between water quality violations and food insecurity in the United States. This study finds that during an active water quality violation in their county of residence, the nutritional content of lower-income households' grocery store purchases differentially declines relative to wealthier households in the same county, with effect sizes that increase with the duration of the violation