Over the last decade, there has been a large international eort to distribute insecticide treated bed nets (ITNs) to reduce the incidence of malaria in sub-Saharan Africa. At the same time, infant mortality and fertility in sub-Saharan has declined
substantially over this period. In this paper, we ask to what extent the declines in infant mortality and fertility can be attributed to the introduction of bed nets.
Using the rapid increase in the distribution of ITNs in the mid-2000s, we use a dierence-in-dierences estimation strategy to identify the causal eect of bed nets on infant mortality and fertility. We show that increases in mosquito net usage alone have had a signicant impact on infant mortality. For example, 50% of the reduction in infant mortality from malaria in Nigeria from 2003 to 2010, and 10% of the overall reduction, can be attributed solely to the introduction of bed nets.