Early Life Nutrition and Subsequent Education, Health, Wage, and Intergenerational Effects

This paper first summarizes recent research in developing countries that is surveyed in prominent Lancet articles and that reports, albeit based on relatively few systematic studies, substantial associations between early life nutrition and subsequent education, health, wage, and intergenerational outcomes. The rest of the paper summarizes further evidence. The next section summarizes some of the strongest micro-level evidence available based on panel data over 35 years from Guatemala on causal effects of early life nutritional improvements on adult cognitive skills and wage rates and offspring anthropometric outcomes. The subsequent section summarizes some benefit-cost analyses for early life nutritional interventions that led to such interventions being ranked highly among interventions of all types, largely on the basis of benefit-cost ratios by prominent economists in the 2004 Copenhagen Consensus. The studies reviewed in this paper indicate that improved early life nutrition in poorly nourished populations may have substantial causal effects on improving productivity and saving resources over the life cycle and into the next generation and may have benefits that substantially outweigh the costs. Thus, in addition to important direct intrinsic welfare benefits, better early life nutrition in such contexts should be a high priority in strategies for increasing growth and productivity.

Bibliographic Details

Main Author:	Behrman, Jere R.
Format:	Working Paper biblioteca
Language:	English en_US
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2008
Subjects:	ADOLESCENCE, ADOLESCENTS, ADOPTED CHILDREN, ADULT HEALTH, AGING, AGRICULTURAL TECHNOLOGIES, ANEMIA, BABIES, BABY, BACTERIAL INFECTIONS, BASIC HEALTH, BIRTH SPACING, BIRTHS, BLIND, BREASTFEEDING, BULLETIN, CALORIC INTAKE, CANCERS, CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE, CHILD CARE, CHILD CARE PROGRAMS, CHILD DEVELOPMENT, CHILD GROWTH, CHILD MALNUTRITION, CHILD NUTRITION, CHILDBEARING, CHRONIC DISEASES, CLIMATE CHANGE, COHORT STUDIES, COMMUNICABLE DISEASES, CONTROL OF MALARIA, CRIME, CULTURAL CHANGE, DEPRESSION, DEVELOPING COUNTRIES, DEWORMING, DIABETES, DIET, DISSEMINATION, DRUGS, EARLY CHILD DEVELOPMENT, EARLY CHILDHOOD, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, ECONOMIC GROWTH, ECONOMIC PRODUCTIVITY, EXPOSURE TO VIOLENCE, FAMILIES, FEMALES, FIBER, FOOD POLICY, FOOD PRODUCTION, FOOD SUPPLEMENTS, FRUIT, FUTURE GENERATIONS, GREENHOUSE GASES, GROWTH MONITORING, HEALTH CENTERS, HEALTH OUTCOMES, HEALTH SECTOR, HEALTH SERVICES, HIV/AIDS, HOSPITALS, HUMAN CAPITAL, HUNGER, ILLNESSES, IMMUNIZATION, INFANT, INFANT FORMULA, INFANT MORTALITY, INFANTS, INFECTIOUS DISEASES, INTERNATIONAL FOOD POLICY RESEARCH INSTITUTE, INTERVENTION, IODINE, IODINE DEFICIENCIES, IRON, IRON DEFICIENCIES, IRON DEFICIENCY, IRON DEFICIENCY ANEMIA, ISOLATION, LABOR MARKET, LEGAL STATUS, LIPIDS, LOW BIRTH WEIGHT, LOW-INCOME COUNTRIES, LOW-INCOME COUNTRY, MALARIA, MALNUTRITION, MATERNAL HEALTH, MATERNAL MORTALITY, MEDICAL CARE, MENTAL, MENTAL ILLNESS, MICRONUTRIENT DEFICIENCIES, MICRONUTRIENTS, MIGRANTS, MIGRATION, MORTALITY, MOTHER, NATURAL RESOURCES, NEONATAL CARE, NEWBORNS, NURSING, NUTRIENT, NUTRITION, NUTRITION INTERVENTIONS, NUTRITIONAL INTAKES, NUTRITIONAL OUTCOMES, NUTRITIONAL STATUS, NUTRITIONAL SUPPLEMENTATION, OBESITY, OSTEOPOROSIS, PARASITIC DISEASE, PARENTING, POLICY MAKERS, POLICY RESEARCH, POOR FAMILIES, POPULATION STUDIES, PRACTITIONERS, PREGNANCIES, PREGNANCY, PREGNANCY OUTCOMES, PREGNANT WOMAN, PREGNANT WOMEN, PRESCHOOL CHILDREN, PRESCHOOL PROGRAMS, PREVALENCE, PROTEIN, PROTEIN DEFICIENCY, PROTEINS, RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED TRIALS, RESIDENCE STATUS, RESOURCE FLOWS, RICE, RISK FACTORS, SANITATION, SCHOOL ATTENDANCE, SCREENING, SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DISEASE, SKILLED WORKERS, SMOKING, SOCIAL AWARENESS, SPOUSE, SPOUSES, STUNTED CHILDREN, STUNTING, SUGAR, TREATMENT, UNDERNUTRITION, VIOLENCE, VITAMIN, VITAMIN A, VITAMIN A DEFICIENCIES, VITAMIN A SUPPLEMENTATION, WASTE, WASTED CHILDREN, WASTING, WATER SUPPLY, WEIGHT GAIN, WORKERS, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION, YOUNG CHILDREN,
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/848441468176953803/Early-life-nutrition-and-subsequent-education-health-wage-and-intergenerational-effects https://hdl.handle.net/10986/28030
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