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Does mother’s education matter in child’s health? Evidence from South Africa

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Author Info
Edgar Villa
Patricia Medrano
Catherine Rodríguez
Abstract

This paper studies the effect that mother's education as knowledge has on child health using height for age as health measure. Using cross sectional data from de 1993 South Africa Integrated Household Survey, and health measures form de National Center for Health Statistics, we find a significant and positive effect of mother's education on the height of a child. Specifically comparing a woman without any education with one with eight years of schooling implies that on average a two-year old child would be a half centimeter higher. In order to isolate de knowledge effect of mother’s education, we control for household and community resources. Additionally, we test for a differential impact of mother’s education depending on the age of the child. We observe a more important impact on children between 3 and 6 years old. Finally, our results suggest a complementarity between mother’s and father’s education.

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Paper provided by Econometric Society in its series Econometric Society 2004 Latin American Meetings with number 229.

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Date of creation: 11 Aug 2004
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Handle: RePEc:ecm:latm04:229

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Related research
Keywords: Economic development; health production; returns to schooling;

Find related papers by JEL classification:
D13 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Production and Intrahouse Allocation
I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Production
O12 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development

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Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Strauss, J. & Thomas, D., 1995. "Empirical Modeling of Household and Family Decisions," Papers 95-12, RAND - Reprint Series.
  2. Behrman, Jere R. & Wolfe, Barbara L., 1987. "How does mother's schooling affect family health, nutrition, medical care usage, and household sanitation?," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 36(1-2), pages 185-204. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Wolfe, Barbara L. & Behrman, Jere R., 1982. "Determinants of child mortality, health, and nutrition in a developing country," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(2), pages 163-193, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Strauss, John & Thomas, Duncan, 1995. "Human resources: Empirical modeling of household and family decisions," Handbook of Development Economics, in: Hollis Chenery† & T.N. Srinivasan (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 34, pages 1883-2023 Elsevier. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Behrman, Jere R. & Deolalikar, Anil B., 1988. "Health and nutrition," Handbook of Development Economics, in: Hollis Chenery† & T.N. Srinivasan (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 14, pages 631-711 Elsevier. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Barrera, Albino, 1990. "The role of maternal schooling and its interaction with public health programs in child health production," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 69-91, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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