Orphanhood and human capital destruction: is there persistence into adulthood?
This article presents unique evidence that orphanhood matters in the long run for health and education outcomes in a region of northwestern Tanzania. We study a sample of 718 non-orphaned children surveyed in 1991-1994 who were traced and reinterviewed as adults in 2004. A large proportion, 19%, lost one or more parents before age 15 in this period, allowing us to assess permanent health and education impacts of orphanhood. In the analysis, we control for a wide range of child and adult characteristics before orphanhood, as well as community fixed effects. We find that maternal orphanhood has a permanent adverse impact of 2 cm of final height attainment and one year of educational attainment. Expressing welfare in terms of consumption expenditure, the result is a gap of 8.5% compared with similar children whose mothers survived until at least their 15th birthday.
Beegle
Kathleen
K
World Bank, 1818 H Street NW, Washington, DC 20433, USA. kbeegle@worldbank.org
de Weerdt
Joachim
J
Dercon
Stefan
S
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001827:Body Height; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D054540:Child, Orphaned / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D012044:Regression Analysis; D013636:Tanzania / Q000453:epidemiology