Fitzsimons, Emla, Malde, Bansi, Mesnard, Alice, Vera-Hernandez, Marcos (2016) Nutrition, Information and Household Behavior: Experimental Evidence from Malawi. Journal of Development Economics, (122). pp. 113-126. ISSN 0304-3878. (doi:10.1016/j.jdeveco.2016.05.002) (KAR id:57887)
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2016.05.002 |
Abstract
Incorrect knowledge of the health production function may lead to inefficient household choices and thereby to the production of suboptimal levels of health. This paper studies the effects of a randomized intervention in rural Malawi that, over a six-month period, provided mothers of young infants with information on child nutrition without supplying any monetary or in-kind resources. A simple model first investigates theoretically how nutrition and other household choices including labor supply may change in response to the improved nutrition knowledge observed in the intervention areas. We then show empirically that the intervention improved child nutrition, household food consumption and consequently health. We find evidence that labor supply increased, which might have contributed to partially fund the increase in food consumption. This paper is the first to study whether non-health choices, particularly parental labor supply, might be affected by parents' knowledge of the child health production function.
Item Type: | Article |
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DOI/Identification number: | 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2016.05.002 |
Uncontrolled keywords: | Infant health; Health information; Labor supply; Cluster randomized control trial |
Subjects: |
H Social Sciences > HB Economic Theory H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Women > HQ755 Popular works. Guidebook for parents > HQ755.8 Parents. Parenthood |
Divisions: | Divisions > Division of Human and Social Sciences > School of Economics |
Depositing User: | Bansi Malde |
Date Deposited: | 19 Oct 2016 11:49 UTC |
Last Modified: | 05 Nov 2024 10:48 UTC |
Resource URI: | https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/57887 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes) |
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