Author(s)
John Maluccio, John Hoddinott, Jere Behrman, Agnes Quisumbing, Reynaldo Martorell, Aryeh Stein

"Using a longitudinal survey from rural Guatemala, we examine the effect of an early childhood nutritional intervention on adult educational outcomes. An intent-to-treat model yields substantial effects of an experimental intervention that provided highly nutritious food supplements to children, a quarter century after it ended: increases of 1.2 grades completed for women and one quarter SD on standardised reading comprehension and non-verbal cognitive ability tests for both women and men. Two-stage least squares results that endogenise the actual supplement intakes corroborate these magnitudes. Improving the nutrient intakes of very young children can have substantial, longterm, educational consequences."

Publication Type
Article
Journal
Economic Journal
Volume
119
Issue Number
537
Pages
734-763
Keywords
early life
nutrition
cognition
schooling