Nutrition and Learning Outcomes: Evidence from Indian States

This study examines the relationship between nutrition and children’s learning outcomes through the lens of the nutrition-based efficiency-wage hypothesis extending its underlying capacity mechanism from physical productivity to learning and cognitive capacity. The analysis exploits three distinct policy interventions in India : alcohol prohibition in Bihar, the introduction of millet-based meals under the Mid-Day Meal (MDM) programme in Haryana and the provision of eggs in MDM in economically disadvantaged districts of Karnataka. Using district-level aggregates constructed from the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), the study employs a difference-in-differences (DID) framework to compare treated and control groups before and after each intervention. Pre-intervention placebo tests provide evidence consistent with the absence of differential trends while synthetic difference-in-differences (SDID) using unit and time weights provides a complementary assessment of the baseline estimates. The findings indicate improvements in school participation, retention and selected learning outcomes following nutritionrelated policy changes. In Bihar, changes in household resource allocation following prohibition are consistent with a potential nutrition-mediated pathway while the Haryana and Karnataka interventions suggest that strengthening the nutritional content of school meals may support educational participation. The research highlights the importance of integrating nutrition-sensitive interventions with conventional education policies as part of broader strategies for human-capital formation particularly in nutritionally disadvantaged settings.