IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/tpr/restat/v103y2021i5p818-834.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Improving Child Health and Cognition: Evidence from a School-Based Nutrition Intervention in India

Author

Listed:
  • Marion Kramer

    (German Institute for Development Evaluation)

  • Santosh Kumar

    (Sam Houston State University)

  • Sebastian Vollmer

    (University of Göttingen)

Abstract

We present experimental evidence on the impact of the use of double-fortified salt in school meals on anemia, cognition, and the learning outcomes of primary school children in rural Bihar, one of the poorest regions of India. We find that a year-long intervention had statistically significant positive impacts on hemoglobin levels and reduced anemia by 20%; however, these health gains did not translate into significant impacts on cognitive performance, test scores, and school attendance. Treatment effects on anemia and test scores were larger for children with higher school attendance. The findings indicate that school-based health interventions are a cost-effective and scalable approach for reducing anemia among school children in resource-constrained countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Marion Kramer & Santosh Kumar & Sebastian Vollmer, 2021. "Improving Child Health and Cognition: Evidence from a School-Based Nutrition Intervention in India," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 103(5), pages 818-834, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:tpr:restat:v:103:y:2021:i:5:p:818-834
    DOI: 10.1162/rest_a_00950
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1162/rest_a_00950
    Download Restriction: Access to PDF is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1162/rest_a_00950?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Hornung, Erik & Schwerdt, Guido & Strazzeri, Maurizio, 2023. "Religious practice and student performance: Evidence from Ramadan fasting," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 205(C), pages 100-119.
    2. Krämer, Marion & Kumar, Santosh & Vollmer, Sebastian, 2021. "Anemia, diet, and cognitive development: Impact of health information on diet quality and child nutrition in rural India," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 190(C), pages 495-523.
    3. Seema Jayachandran, 2023. "Ten Facts about Son Preference in India," Working Papers 2023-12, Princeton University. Economics Department..
    4. Lubina Fatimah Qureshy & Harold Alderman & Navneet Manchanda, 2023. "Benefit-cost analysis of iron fortification of rice in India: modelling potential economic gains from improving haemoglobin and averting anaemia," Journal of Development Effectiveness, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(1), pages 91-110, January.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • C93 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Field Experiments
    • I15 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health and Economic Development
    • O11 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:tpr:restat:v:103:y:2021:i:5:p:818-834. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kelly McDougall (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://direct.mit.edu/journals .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.