Math skills and market and non-market outcomes: Evidence from an Amazonian society of forager-farmers

Undurraga, Eduardo A.; Behrman, Jere R.; Grigorenko, Elena L.; Schultz, Alan; Yiu, Julie; Team, Taps Bolivia Study; Godoy, Ricardo

doi:10.1016/j.econedurev.2013.09.004

Cited by 9 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…For instance, we found forward telescoping bias and omission bias when reporting the value of monetary income and barter, and the frequency of illness during the two weeks before the day of the interview. We also found random measurement error in variables such as reported age, parental education (Godoy et al, 2008), rounding errors with measures of height and weight (Godoy et al, 2008), and random measurement errors in test-based measures of adult math skills (Undurraga et al, 2013). The panel allowed us to develop and refine methods to measure the theoretical and practical dimensions of local ecological knowledge (Reyes-García et al, 2006).…”

Section: Findings: Substantive and Methodologicalmentioning

confidence: 85%

The Tsimane’ Amazonian Panel Study (TAPS): Nine years (2002–2010) of annual data available to the public

Leonard

Reyes‐García

Tanner

et al. 2015

Economics & Human Biology

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This brief communication contains a description of the 2002-2010 annual panel collected by the Tsimane’ Amazonian Panel Study team. The study took place among the Tsimane’, a native Amazonian society of forager-horticulturalists. The team tracked a wide range of socio-economic and anthropometric variables from all residents (633 adults ≥16 years; 820 children) in 13 villages along the Maniqui River, department of Beni. The panel is ideally suited to examine how market exposure and modernization affect the well-being of a highly autarkic population and to examine human growth in a non-Western rural setting.

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Section: Findings: Substantive and Methodologicalmentioning

confidence: 85%

The Tsimane’ Amazonian Panel Study (TAPS): Nine years (2002–2010) of annual data available to the public

Leonard

Reyes‐García

Tanner

et al. 2015

Economics & Human Biology

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“…First, we piloted several different ways of measuring socioeconomic variables. As is true in other native Amazonian societies (Gordon, 2004; Pica et al, 2004) among the Tsimane’ one finds limited cultural significance for numbers (Piantadosi et al, 2014; Undurraga et al, 2013). Because of Tsimane’ limited use of numbers and thus faulty recall we have found it hard to obtain reliable measures of expenditures, particularly in ordinary goods compared with salient goods.…”

Section: Figurementioning

confidence: 86%

Individual health and the visibility of village economic inequality: Longitudinal evidence from native Amazonians in Bolivia

Undurraga

Nica

Zhang

et al. 2016

Economics & Human Biology

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Mounting evidence suggests that income inequality is associated with worse individual health. But does the visibility of inequality matter? Using data from a horticultural-foraging society of native Amazonians in Bolivia (Tsimane’), we examined whether village inequality in resources and behaviors with greater cultural visibility are more likely to bear a negative association with health than village inequality in less conspicuous resources. We draw on a nine-year annual panel (2002–2010) from 13 Tsimane’ villages for our main analysis, and an additional survey to gauge the cultural visibility of resources. We measured inequality using the Gini coefficient. We tested the robustness of our results using a shorter two-year annual panel (2008–2009) in another 40 Tsimane’ villages and another measure of inequality (coefficient of variation, CV). Behaviors with low cultural visibility (e.g., household farm area planted with staples) were less likely to be associated with individual health, compared to more conspicuous behaviors (e.g., expenditures in durable goods, consumption of domesticated animals). We find some evidence that property rights and access to resources matter, with inequality of privately-owned resources showing a larger effect on health. More inequality was associated with improved perceived health – maybe due to improved health prospects from increasing wealth – and worse anthropometric indicators. For example, a unit increase in the Gini coefficient of expenditures in durable goods was associated with 0.24 fewer episodes of stress and a six percentage-point lower probability of reporting illness. A one-point increase in the CV of village inequality in meat consumption was associated with a 4 and 3 percentage-point lower probability of reporting illness and being in bed due to illness, and a 0.05 SD decrease in age-sex standardized arm-muscle area. In small-scale, rural societies at the periphery of market economies, nominal economic inequality in resources bore an association with individual health, but did not necessarily harm perceived health. Economic inequalities in small-scale societies apparently matter, but a thick cultural tapestry of reciprocity norms and kinship ties makes their effects less predictable than in industrial societies.

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“…Low levels of literacy and numeracy (Undurraga et al. 2013 , 2018 ), plus tendencies to round their own or their children’s reported ages to multiples of five, add noise to age estimates (Godoy 2017 ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Birth seasons and heights among girls and boys below 12 years of age: lasting effects and catch-up growth among native Amazonians in Bolivia

Brabec

Behrman

Emmett

et al. 2018

Annals of Human Biology

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Background: Seasons affect many social, economic, and biological outcomes, particularly in low-resource settings, and some studies suggest that birth season affects child growth.Aim: To study a predictor of stunting that has received limited attention: birth season.Subjects and methods: This study uses cross-sectional data collected during 2008 in a low-resource society of horticulturists-foragers in the Bolivian Amazon, Tsimane’. It estimates the associations between birth months and height-for-age Z-scores (HAZ) for 562 girls and 546 boys separately, from birth until age 11 years or pre-puberty, which in this society occurs ∼13–14 years.Results: Children born during the rainy season (February–May) were shorter, while children born during the end of the dry season and the start of the rainy season (August–November) were taller, both compared with their age–sex peers born during the rest of the year. The correlations of birth season with HAZ were stronger for boys than for girls. Controlling for birth season, there is some evidence of eventual partial catch-up growth, with the HAZ of girls or boys worsening until ∼ age 4–5 years, but improving thereafter. By age 6 years, many girls and boys had ceased to be stunted, irrespective of birth season.Conclusion: The results suggest that redressing stunting will require attention to conditions in utero, infancy and late childhood.

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Math skills and market and non-market outcomes: Evidence from an Amazonian society of forager-farmers

Cited by 9 publications

References 20 publications

The Tsimane’ Amazonian Panel Study (TAPS): Nine years (2002–2010) of annual data available to the public

The Tsimane’ Amazonian Panel Study (TAPS): Nine years (2002–2010) of annual data available to the public

Individual health and the visibility of village economic inequality: Longitudinal evidence from native Amazonians in Bolivia

Birth seasons and heights among girls and boys below 12 years of age: lasting effects and catch-up growth among native Amazonians in Bolivia

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