IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hrv/faseco/4460861.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Deworming and Development: Asking the Right Questions, Asking the Questions Right

Author

Listed:
  • Bleakley, Hoyt
  • Miguel, Edward
  • Kremer, Michael R.
  • Jukes, Matthew
  • Bundy, Donald A. P.

Abstract

Two billion people are infected with intestinal worms. In many areas, the majority of schoolchildren are infected, and the World Health Organization (WHO) has called for school-based mass deworming. The key area for debate is not whether deworming medicine works—in fact, the medical literature finds that treatment is highly effective, and thus the standard of care calls for treating any patient known to harbor an infection. As the authors of the Cochrane systematic review point out, a critical issue in evaluating current soil-transmitted helminth policies is whether the benefits of deworming exceed the costs or whether it would be more prudent to use the money for other purposes. While in general we think the Cochrane approach is very valuable, we argue below that many of the underlying studies of deworming suffer from three critical methodological problems: treatment externalities in dynamic infection systems, inadequate measurement of cognitive outcomes and school attendance, and sample attrition. We then argue that the currently available evidence from studies that address these issues is consistent with the consensus view expressed by other reviews and by policymakers that deworming is a very cost-effective way to increase school participation and has a high benefit to cost ratio.

Suggested Citation

  • Bleakley, Hoyt & Miguel, Edward & Kremer, Michael R. & Jukes, Matthew & Bundy, Donald A. P., 2009. "Deworming and Development: Asking the Right Questions, Asking the Questions Right," Scholarly Articles 4460861, Harvard University Department of Economics.
  • Handle: RePEc:hrv:faseco:4460861
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/4460861/2627944.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hoyt Bleakley, 2007. "Disease and Development: Evidence from Hookworm Eradication in the American South," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 122(1), pages 73-117.
    2. Edward Miguel & Michael Kremer, 2004. "Worms: Identifying Impacts on Education and Health in the Presence of Treatment Externalities," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 72(1), pages 159-217, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Rodolfo E. Manuelli, 2011. "Disease and Development: The Role of Human Capital," 2011 Meeting Papers 605, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    2. Sarah Baird & Joan Hamory Hicks & Michael Kremer & Edward Miguel, 2016. "Worms at Work: Long-run Impacts of a Child Health Investment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 131(4), pages 1637-1680.
    3. Amrita Ahuja & Sarah Baird & Joan Hamory Hicks & Michael Kremer & Edward Miguel & Shawn Powers, 2015. "When Should Governments Subsidize Health? The Case of Mass Deworming," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank Group, vol. 29(suppl_1), pages 9-24.
    4. Diane Coffey & Michael Geruso & Dean Spears, 2018. "Sanitation, Disease Externalities and Anaemia: Evidence From Nepal," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 128(611), pages 1395-1432, June.
    5. Abid Anwar & Mussawar Shah & Yasrab Abid & Zia Ul Qamar & Hina Qamar, 2018. "Consumer Importance on Sustainable Water Sanitation & Hygiene Facilities Provided in Rural District Peshawar, Pakistan," Journal of Social Science Studies, Macrothink Institute, vol. 5(1), pages 316-328, January.
    6. Rodolfo Manuelli & Emircan Yurdagul, 2021. "AIDS, Human Capital and Development," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 42, pages 178-193, October.
    7. Owen Ozier, 2018. "Exploiting Externalities to Estimate the Long-Term Effects of Early Childhood Deworming," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 10(3), pages 235-262, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. McNamara, Paul E. & Ulimwengu, John M. & Leonard, Kenneth L., 2010. "Do health investments improve agricultural productivity? Lessons from agricultural household and health research," IFPRI discussion papers 1012, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    2. Michael F. Lovenheim & Randall Reback & Leigh Wedenoja, 2016. "How Does Access to Health Care Affect Teen Fertility and High School Dropout Rates? Evidence from School-based Health Centers," NBER Working Papers 22030, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Jacobus de Hoop & Jed Friedman & Eeshani Kandpal & Furio C. Rosati, 2019. "Child Schooling and Child Work in the Presence of a Partial Education Subsidy," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 54(2), pages 503-531.
    4. Kevin Croke & Joan Hamory Hicks & Eric Hsu & Michael Kremer & Ricardo Maertens & Edward Miguel & Witold Więcek, 2016. "Meta-Analysis and Public Policy: Reconciling the Evidence on Deworming," NBER Working Papers 22382, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Schünemann, Johannes & Bloom, David E. & Canning, David & Kotschy, Rainer & Prettner, Klaus, 2018. "Health and Economic Growth: Reconciling the Micro and Macro Evidence," VfS Annual Conference 2018 (Freiburg, Breisgau): Digital Economy 181554, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    6. Pierre-Richard Agénor, 2018. "Health and Knowledge Externalities: Implications for Growth and Public Policy ," Centre for Growth and Business Cycle Research Discussion Paper Series 245, Economics, The University of Manchester.
    7. Archibong, Belinda & Annan, Francis & Ekhator-Mobayode, Uche, 2023. "The epidemic effect: Epidemics, institutions and human capital development," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 211(C), pages 549-566.
    8. Prashant Bharadwaj & Katrine Vellesen L?ken & Christopher Neilson, 2013. "Early Life Health Interventions and Academic Achievement," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(5), pages 1862-1891, August.
    9. Meredith, Jennifer & Robinson, Jonathan & Walker, Sarah & Wydick, Bruce, 2013. "Keeping the doctor away: Experimental evidence on investment in preventative health products," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 196-210.
    10. Andrew M. Jones, 2007. "Identification of treatment effects in Health Economics," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(11), pages 1127-1131.
    11. Sarah Baird & Joan Hamory Hicks & Michael Kremer & Edward Miguel, 2016. "Worms at Work: Long-run Impacts of a Child Health Investment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 131(4), pages 1637-1680.
    12. Cohen, Daniel & Leker, Laura, 2014. "Health and Education: Another Look with the Proper Data," CEPR Discussion Papers 9940, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    13. Hoehn-Velasco, Lauren, 2018. "Explaining declines in US rural mortality, 1910–1933: The role of county health departments," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 42-72.
    14. Wang, Qing & Zhang, Shiying, 2022. "Gender inequality in nutrition intake: Evidence from a large assistance program," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 45(C).
    15. Fletcher, Jason M. & Lehrer, Steven F., 2009. "The Effect of Adolescent Health on Educational Outcomes: Causal Evidence using ‘Genetic Lotteries’ between Siblings," CLSSRN working papers clsrn_admin-2009-40, Vancouver School of Economics, revised 26 Jun 2009.
    16. Camargo, Braz & Stein, Guilherme, 2022. "Credit constraints and human capital policies," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 208(C).
    17. Amrita Ahuja & Sarah Baird & Joan Hamory Hicks & Michael Kremer & Edward Miguel & Shawn Powers, 2015. "When Should Governments Subsidize Health? The Case of Mass Deworming," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank Group, vol. 29(suppl_1), pages 9-24.
    18. Barde, Julia Alexa & Walkiewicz, Juliana, 2013. "The Impact of Access to Piped Drinking Water on Human Capital Formation - Evidence from Brasilian Primary Schools," VfS Annual Conference 2013 (Duesseldorf): Competition Policy and Regulation in a Global Economic Order 79808, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    19. Aditya Goenka & Lin Liu, 2020. "Infectious diseases, human capital and economic growth," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 70(1), pages 1-47, July.
    20. Francis Makamu & Mehtabul Azam & Harounan Kazianga, 2018. "Returns to Controlling a Neglected Tropical Disease: Schistosomiasis Control Programme and Education Outcomes in Nigeria," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies (CSAE), vol. 27(5), pages 538-557.

    More about this item

    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:hrv:faseco:4460861. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Office for Scholarly Communication (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/deharus.html .

    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.