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American Economic Review Vol. 111 No. 8 2021

The Impacts of a Multifaceted Prenatal Intervention on Human Capital Accumulation in Early Life

Pedro Carneiro1; Lucy Kraftman2; Giacomo Mason3; Lucie Moore4; Imran Rasul5; Molly Scott4

1 UCL, IFS, CEMMAP, and FAIR-NHH (email: ) · 2 IFS (email: ) · 3 Competition and Markets Authority (email: ) · 4 OPM (email: ) · 5 UCL  and IFS (email: )

Abstract

We evaluate an intervention targeting early life nutrition and well-being for households in extreme poverty in Northern Nigeria. The intervention leads to large and sustained improvements in children’s anthropometric and health outcomes, including an 8 percent reduction in stunting 4 years, post-intervention. These impacts are partly driven by information-related channels. However, the certain and substantial flow of cash transfers is also key. They induce positive labor supply responses among women, and enables them to undertake productive investments in livestock. These provide protein rich diets for children, and generate higher household earnings streams long after the cash transfers expire.

DOI
10.1257/aer.20191726
Volume
111
Issue
8
Pages
2506-2549
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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