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Does Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Program Improve Child Nutrition?

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  • Legesse Debela, Bethelhem

    (Centre for Land Tenure Studies, Norwegian University of Life Sciences)

  • Shively, Gerald

    (Centre for Land Tenure Studies, Norwegian University of Life Sciences)

  • Holden, Stein

    (Centre for Land Tenure Studies, Norwegian University of Life Sciences)

Abstract

We study the link between Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP) and short-run nutrition outcomes among children age 5 years and younger. We use 2006 and 2010 survey data from Northern Ethiopia to estimate parameters of an exogenous switching regression. This allows us to measure the differential impacts of household characteristics on weight-for-height Z-score of children in member and non-member households in PSNP. We find that the magnitude and significance of household covariates differ in samples of children from PSNP and non-PSNP households. Controlling for a set of observable features of children and households we find that children in member households have weight-for-height Z-scores that are 0.55 points higher than those of children in non-member households. We conclude that the PSNP is providing positive short-term nutritional benefits for children, especially in those households that are able to leverage underemployed female labor.

Suggested Citation

  • Legesse Debela, Bethelhem & Shively, Gerald & Holden, Stein, 2014. "Does Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Program Improve Child Nutrition?," CLTS Working Papers 1/14, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Centre for Land Tenure Studies, revised 10 Oct 2019.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:nlsclt:2014_001
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    2. Richard Freund & Marta Favara & Catherine Porter & Jere Behrman, 2022. "Social protection and foundational cognitive skills during adolescence: evidence from a large Public Works Programme," PIER Working Paper Archive 22-022, Penn Institute for Economic Research, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania.
    3. Carruth, Lauren & Freeman, Scott, 2021. "Aid or exploitation?: Food-for-work, cash-for-work, and the production of “beneficiary-workers” in Ethiopia and Haiti," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    4. Jules Gazeaud & Victor Stephane, 2023. "Productive Workfare? Evidence from Ethiopia's Productive Safety Net Program," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 105(1), pages 265-290, January.
    5. Aregawi G. Gebremariam & Elisabetta Lodigiani & Giacomo Pasini, 2017. "The impact of Ethiopian Productive Safety-net Program on children's educational aspirations," Working Papers 2017:26, Department of Economics, University of Venice "Ca' Foscari".
    6. Girmay Berhe Araya, 2020. "Impact of Ethiopia's productive safety net program on manure use by rural households: Evidence from Tigrai, Northern Ethiopia," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 51(5), pages 725-742, September.
    7. Gelo, Dambala & Muchapondwa, Edwin & Shimeles, Abebe & Dikgang, Johane, 2020. "Aid, collective action and benefits to smallholders: Evaluating the World Food Program's purchase for progress pilot," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    8. Berhane, Guush & Abay, Mehari & Woldehanna, Tassew, 2015. "Childhood Shocks, Safety nets and Cognitive Skills: Panel Data Evidence from Rural Ethiopia," 2015 Conference, August 9-14, 2015, Milan, Italy 210868, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    9. Tagel Gebrehiwot & Carolina Castilla, 2018. "Do safety net transfers improve household diets and reduce undernutrition? Evidence from rural Ethiopia," Working Papers PMMA 2018-03, PEP-PMMA.
    10. Bezawit Adugna Bahru & Manfred Zeller, 2022. "Gauging the impact of Ethiopia’s productive safety net programme on agriculture: Application of targeted maximum likelihood estimation approach," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 73(1), pages 257-276, February.
    11. M. Savy & S. Fortin & Y. Kameli & S. Renault & C. Couderc & A. Gamli & K. Amouzou & M. L. Perenze & Y. Martin-Prevel, 2020. "Impact of a food voucher program in alleviating household food insecurity in two cities in Senegal during a food price crisis," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 12(2), pages 465-478, April.
    12. Getachew Yirga Belete, 2021. "Impacts of Social Protection Programmes on Children’s Resources and Wellbeing: Evidence from Ethiopia," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 14(2), pages 681-712, April.
    13. Araya, Girma Behe & Holden , Stein T., 2017. "Is Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Program Enhancing Dependency?," CLTS Working Papers 5/17, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Centre for Land Tenure Studies, revised 21 Oct 2019.
    14. Ricker-Gilbert, Jacob & Lunduka, Rodney & Shively, Gerald & Jayne, Thom, 2014. "Comparing FISP to Alternative Programs," Food Security Collaborative Policy Briefs 234942, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics.
    15. Elsa Valli, 2017. "Essays on social protection," Economics PhD Theses 1017, Department of Economics, University of Sussex Business School.
    16. von Grebmer, Klaus & Bernstein, Jill & Hossain, Naomi & Brown, Tracy & Prasai, Nilam & Yohannes, Yisehac & Patterson, Fraser & Sonntag, Andrea & Zimmerman, Sophia-Maria & Towey, Olive & Foley, Connell, 2017. "2017 Global Hunger Index: The inequalities of hunger," IFPRI books, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), number 978-0-89629-271-0.
    17. Bahru, B., 2018. "Climatic shocks and child undernutrition in Ethiopia: A longitudinal path analysis," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 277297, International Association of Agricultural Economists.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    anthropometrics; Ethiopia; food security; nutrition; safety net;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I15 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health and Economic Development
    • I38 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs

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