American Economic Review
ISSN 0002-8282 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7981 (Online)
The Impacts of a Multifaceted Prenatal Intervention on Human Capital Accumulation in Early Life
American Economic Review
vol. 111,
no. 8, August 2021
(pp. 2506–49)
Abstract
We evaluate an intervention targeting early life nutrition and well-being for households in extreme poverty in Northern Nigeria. The intervention leads to large and sustained improvements in children's anthropometric and health outcomes, including an 8 percent reduction in stunting 4 years, post-intervention. These impacts are partly driven by information-related channels. However, the certain and substantial flow of cash transfers is also key. They induce positive labor supply responses among women, and enables them to undertake productive investments in livestock. These provide protein rich diets for children, and generate higher household earnings streams long after the cash transfers expire.Citation
Carneiro, Pedro, Lucy Kraftman, Giacomo Mason, Lucie Moore, Imran Rasul, and Molly Scott. 2021. "The Impacts of a Multifaceted Prenatal Intervention on Human Capital Accumulation in Early Life." American Economic Review, 111 (8): 2506–49. DOI: 10.1257/aer.20191726Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- I12 Health Behavior
- I32 Measurement and Analysis of Poverty
- I38 Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty: Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs
- J13 Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
- J16 Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
- J22 Time Allocation and Labor Supply
- O12 Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development