Impact of Childhood Vaccination on Human Capital Formation in Later Life: Evidence from Indonesia

This paper examines the long-term effects of childhood vaccination on educational and health outcomes. Using data from the Indonesia Family Life Survey, we leverage the variation in timing and quality of the Village Midwife Program’s implementation in the 1990s as a source of vaccination access differences. We use the interaction between the timing of midwife presence in communities and the squared inverse-distance from the respondent’s district of birth to the national capital as an exogenous factor influencing whether a child received full basic vaccinations. Our findings indicate that children who received complete basic vaccinations tend to attain more years of schooling, achieve higher math scores, are taller, and have a lower risk of being underweight. We also find evidence suggesting that childhood stunting, wasting, and being underweight, as well as absenteeism and lower cognitive abilities in later life, may be key channels through which incomplete childhood vaccination influences human capital formation.