baseline in 2012-13) and VG classification status, along with information on the name of the household head among other variables.<sup>13</sup> What we refer to as the SBM data includes the SBM baseline information as well as a snapshot of the (continuously changing) live SBM dataset taken in September 2016, two years after the launch of SBM and the micro-credit interventions. SBM has since stopped making data available at the individual household level.

The incredible scope of the SBM data, covering every household in rural India, comes at a cost in terms of the information available. First, data on the date of toilet construction and subsidy receipt, needed to assess funding time gaps, is missing for most observations. Second, no information on the toilet, beyond its original existence is available. Once a household is recorded to have a toilet (the type of which is unknown) it continues to be recorded as such: usage, functionality and quality are among the dimensions not captured in the SBM data, but are critical to know in order to assess whether micro-credit complements SBM in affecting sanitation behaviour and open defecation.

# **Survey data**

We are able to overcome these limitations by augmenting the SBM data with primary survey data that we collected from a sample of MF clients in our 81 study GPs in rural Maharashtra at two points in time, in Sept-Oct 2014 and Aug-Sept 2017. The first data collection round (referred to as the ‘census data’) was completed on 14 October 2014, one day before the announcement of the SBM policy by the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi. The census data cover basic information (e.g. names, caste, toilet ownership, etc.) on a large representative sample of our study population (all households in relatively small villages and all households living in a representative sample of segments of villages in larger villages). The census population formed the sampling frame for our study. The second dataset used in this study (referred to as ‘endline’), on a sample of households in our study area, was collected in August-September 2017, one year after the last SBM snapshot data was taken. This allows us to include a longer-term impact perspective. In October-December 2018, we also conducted a baseline survey of a sub-set of households in our study sample, which we use in robustness checks (not in the main analysis).

The surveys collected rich information on household socio-economic status, household toilet ownership (household self-reported and interviewer observed), toilet quality and usage, open defecation practice and self-reported subsidy receipts. Unlike the SBM data, the survey data contain information on subsidy receipts at _any_ point in time, not just since the launch of SBM. Importantly, the surveys collected information on the timing of toilet construction and subsidy receipts.

# **MFI and credit bureau data**

While the surveys also collect information on sanitation loan uptake and timing of loan receipt as well as borrowing from formal and informal sources beyond the partner MFI, we are able to get a more accurate measure on this outcome by linking our survey data to MFI and credit bureau administrative data, using the MFI’s client identifier. Regulations introduced by the Reserve Bank of India in 2011 require all microfinance institutions to report to a credit bureau on all loans outstanding for each client on a monthly

> 13http://swachhbharatmission.gov.in/SBMCMS/sbm-mis.htm

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