Child Health and the 1988-92 Economic Crisis in Peru
The effect of economic crises on child health is a topic of great policy importance. The authors use data from the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) to analyze the impact of the profound 1988-92 economic crisis in Peru on infant mortality and anthropometrics. They show that there was an increase in the infant mortality rate of about 2.5 percentage points for children born in late 1989 and 1990, implying that about 17,000 more children died than would have in the absence of the crisis. The authors also present suggestive evidence that the crisis affected children's nutritional status. In 1992 children under the age of 6 who had been exposed to the crisis were shorter than same-aged children in 1996 and 2000. The authors do not have data on child height prior to the crisis, but the age profile of changes in nutritional status and the fact that the 1996 and 2000 height-for-age schedules are very similar to each other both suggest that the 1992 values represent declines from previous levels. Accounting for the precise source of the increase in infant mortality and in malnutrition is difficult, but it appears that both the decrease in household incomes and the collapse in expenditures on public health played an important role.
| Summary: | The effect of economic crises on child
health is a topic of great policy importance. The authors
use data from the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) to
analyze the impact of the profound 1988-92 economic crisis
in Peru on infant mortality and anthropometrics. They show
that there was an increase in the infant mortality rate of
about 2.5 percentage points for children born in late 1989
and 1990, implying that about 17,000 more children died than
would have in the absence of the crisis. The authors also
present suggestive evidence that the crisis affected
children's nutritional status. In 1992 children under
the age of 6 who had been exposed to the crisis were shorter
than same-aged children in 1996 and 2000. The authors do
not have data on child height prior to the crisis, but the
age profile of changes in nutritional status and the fact
that the 1996 and 2000 height-for-age schedules are very
similar to each other both suggest that the 1992 values
represent declines from previous levels. Accounting for the
precise source of the increase in infant mortality and in
malnutrition is difficult, but it appears that both the
decrease in household incomes and the collapse in
expenditures on public health played an important role. |
|---|