Child health, its dynamic interaction with nutrition and health memory--evidence from Senegal.
Child malnutrition is pervasive in developing countries and anthropometric measures such as weight-for-height and height-for-age have proven reliable indicators of short term malnutrition and stunting. Rather than studying these indicators separately, we look at their interaction and carve out child health dynamics. Considering height-for-age a child's health stock and weight-for-lagged height a proxy for nutritional inputs, we develop a child health production function that features self-productivity of past health stocks and contemporaneous nutritional inputs. We test the model on a Senegalese panel of 271 children between 0 and 5 years employing dynamic panel methods to control for endogeneity in the production function. In line with previous evidence, we find that children can partially catch-up from malnutrition spells. Yet, child health stocks also deplete quickly and need constant updating in the form of nutrition. This demonstrates the importance of health memory and that malnutrition cannot be fought with snapshot interventions. Consequently, sustainable nutrition interventions have to be long term and yield higher returns the earlier they reach children.
Department of Economics and Max Weber Programme, European University Institute, Via dei Roccettini 9, 50014 San Domenico, Italy. Electronic address: matthias.rieger@graduateinstitute.ch.
Matthias
M
Rieger
International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam, Kortenaerkade 12, 2518AX The Hague, The Netherlands. Electronic address: wagner@iss.nl.
Natascha
N
Wagner
D000367:Age Factors; D001837:Body Weights and Measures; D015362:Child Nutrition Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002149:Energy Intake / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D009752:Nutritional Status / Q000502:physiology*; D012675:Senegal; D012737:Sex Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors
Child health production; Dynamic panel regression; Health memory; Height-for-age; Malnutrition; Weight-for-height