{"componentChunkName":"component---src-templates-post-query-tsx","path":"/blog-post/poop-for-sale/","result":{"pageContext":{"post":{"slug":"/blog-post/poop-for-sale/","title":"Poop for sale","date":"Jun 09, 2012","timeToRead":1,"description":"","body":"function _extends() { _extends = Object.assign || function (target) { for (var i = 1; i < arguments.length; i++) { var source = arguments[i]; for (var key in source) { if (Object.prototype.hasOwnProperty.call(source, key)) { target[key] = source[key]; } } } return target; }; return _extends.apply(this, arguments); }\n\nfunction _objectWithoutProperties(source, excluded) { if (source == null) return {}; var target = _objectWithoutPropertiesLoose(source, excluded); var key, i; if (Object.getOwnPropertySymbols) { var sourceSymbolKeys = Object.getOwnPropertySymbols(source); for (i = 0; i < sourceSymbolKeys.length; i++) { key = sourceSymbolKeys[i]; if (excluded.indexOf(key) >= 0) continue; if (!Object.prototype.propertyIsEnumerable.call(source, key)) continue; target[key] = source[key]; } } return target; }\n\nfunction _objectWithoutPropertiesLoose(source, excluded) { if (source == null) return {}; var target = {}; var sourceKeys = Object.keys(source); var key, i; for (i = 0; i < sourceKeys.length; i++) { key = sourceKeys[i]; if (excluded.indexOf(key) >= 0) continue; target[key] = source[key]; } return target; }\n\n/* @jsxRuntime classic */\n\n/* @jsx mdx */\nvar _frontmatter = {\n  \"title\": \"Poop for sale\",\n  \"date\": \"2012-06-09\",\n  \"template\": \"post\",\n  \"slug\": \"poop-for-sale\",\n  \"postedLink\": \"https://riceinstitute.org/blog/poop-for-sale/\",\n  \"old-tags\": [\"economics\", \"incentives\", \"open-defecation\"],\n  \"description\": \"\",\n  \"tags\": \"Blog Post\",\n  \"banner\": \"\"\n};\nvar layoutProps = {\n  _frontmatter: _frontmatter\n};\nvar MDXLayout = \"wrapper\";\nreturn function MDXContent(_ref) {\n  var components = _ref.components,\n      props = _objectWithoutProperties(_ref, [\"components\"]);\n\n  return mdx(MDXLayout, _extends({}, layoutProps, props, {\n    components: components,\n    mdxType: \"MDXLayout\"\n  }), mdx(\"p\", null, \"Diane and I are glad to be back in India \\u2013 where it is hot \\u2013 and Avinash will be joining us in just a few days. I started the week in Seattle seeing old friends and making new friends at a conference for the Gates Foundation\\u2019s Water, Sanitation and Hygiene program.\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"We\\u2019re on the move again, so I haven\\u2019t been blogging as much, but at the conference I heard many great ideas about improving sanitation that I wanted to share. One group is designing and testing an electronic box that can verify whether people go in their latrines. Another is trying to understand the market for latrine pumping in peri-urban areas: like the trucks that come to Diane\\u2019s family\\u2019s septic tanks, in these high population density settings somebody has to eventually take it away. A third group is working with a city government to randomize community sanitation complexes.\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"But one of the ideas I\\u2019ve been thinking about most is a perfectly Economist idea my friend \", mdx(\"a\", {\n    parentName: \"p\",\n    \"href\": \"http://www.econ.umd.edu/faculty/profiles/guiteras/\",\n    \"target\": \"_blank\",\n    \"rel\": \"noopener noreferrer\"\n  }, \"Raymond Guiteras\"), \" mentioned at lunch: buy people\\u2019s poop. If somebody stood ready to buy stools, everyone would have a financial incentive to put in in a safe place. Economists call this \\u201Cinternalizing the externality\\u201D and think about ways to make similar incentives apply to other social problems (often through taxes or subsidies).\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"Now, there are some important practical difficulties here, not least how we could keep people from diluting the product with water, for example. Alternatively, we could pay people for coming to the sanitation complex, but privacy and verification problems interact there, too. But silly notions sometimes lead to good ideas, and if nothing else Raymond\\u2019s suggestion dramatizes the externality at the heart of the problem. Thoughts?\"));\n}\n;\nMDXContent.isMDXComponent = true;","tags":[{"name":"Blog Post","slug":"blog-post"}],"banner":null}}},"staticQueryHashes":["318001574","3787687951","3787687951"]}