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Female Micro-Entrepreneurship and Child Development

Author

Listed:
  • Andrew Foster
  • Moritz Poll
  • Hyun Soo Suh

Abstract

Ultra-poor graduation programs (UPG) reliably reduce extreme poverty among adult recipients, yet their intergenerational effects on children remain largely undocumented. We study a child-focused UPG in rural Malawi that augments the standard graduation bundle with early childhood development (ECD) training, targeting mothers with young children in a population that is both severely stunted and approximately 1 SD behind international benchmarks on cognitive and non-cognitive development. In an RCT of 1,872 households, we show that the intervention raises child development by 0.16 to 0.26 SD within one year but has no significant effects on anthropometrics. Behind the impacts is a broad shift in parental inputs and behaviors. The results demonstrate that a child-focused anti-poverty program can generate child development gains that have not been documented in comparable programs without a child focus.

Suggested Citation

  • Andrew Foster & Moritz Poll & Hyun Soo Suh, 2026. "Female Micro-Entrepreneurship and Child Development," NBER Working Papers 35710, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:35710
    Note: CH DEV
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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality
    • I25 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Economic Development
    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration

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