Anticipatory Human Capital and Child Nutrition Investment
RCTClinical Trial
Severe gender gaps in education and health exist in developing regions because parents expect lower labor market returns for daughters relative to sons [21-23]. Without clear financial returns to female education and health, households underinvest in young girls' schooling and nutrition [21-23].
Picture this
Imagine planting two types of fruit trees in a garden where fruit tree A sells for high prices in the future market while tree B sells for nothing [21, 23]. Gardeners naturally water, fertilize, and prune tree A far more diligently long before it bears fruit because they anticipate harvesting a lucrative crop years down the road [21, 23].
What the evidence says
School enrollment for girls aged 6–17 increased by 5.0 percentage points (p < 0.01), closing about 60% of the baseline boy-girl schooling gap, while BMI-for-age z-score increased by 0.24 standard deviations (p < 0.01) for girls aged 5–15 [21, 24, 27, 28].
- Who was studied
- 2,264 girls aged 6–17 for school enrollment and 2,031 girls aged 5–15 for anthropometric body mass index (BMI) measurements across 160 villages [8, 24].
- How
- Three-year randomized trial measuring school enrollment (verified with school records) and physical height/weight measurements converted to World Health Organization BMI-for-age z-scores [21, 24-26].
What to do
Increase visible future career opportunities for women to motivate parents to immediately invest more resources in young daughters' health and education.
From the source
"Significantly, we also find that even younger, school-aged girls had increased school enrollment and greater body mass index (BMI), reflecting better nutrition and/or health investments." [21]
517 labor market opportunities QJE April '12.pdf