The Economics of Malnourished Children: An Example of Disinvestment in Human Capital

Selowsky, Marcelo; Taylor, Lance

doi:10.1086/450685

Cited by 65 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…However, results of most studies are generally consistent with this study's findings. In Chile, Selowsky and Taylor [26] reported the full cost-benefit analysis associated with a nutrition intervention on 33 severely malnourished children's weight, cognitive capacity, and future earnings. This author observed that the rates of return for the protein supplementation program was between 19 and 25%, with the returns on primary education about 17% and physical capital investments around 15%.…”

Section: Child Healthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do maternal and child health promote economic development? A case study of six sub-Saharan African countries

Klobodu¹,

J²,

Reed³

et al. 2018

AJFAND

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Economic development leads to improved health for both women and children through advances in the field of medicine, reduction in mortality rates, and increase in life expectancy. Similarly, optimum maternal and child health are instrumental in human capital formation and productivity, with the potential for economic development. However, the majority of previously published research has focused on the impact of economic development on maternal and child health and rarely examines the reverse relationship (that is, the impact of child and maternal health on economic development), especially in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Therefore, the objective of this study was to determine the magnitude of the impact of maternal and child health on economic development (Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita), and vice versa, using a 10year horizon and variance decompositions, for six countries in SSA. These countries, Burkina Faso, Togo, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Botswana and South Africa were grouped according to income brackets. Analyses were all based on Vector Auto Regression models and conducted on annual time-series data from the World Development Indicator data set, 1960-2012. The proxies for child health and maternal health were infant mortality rate and life expectancy at birth for females (in years), respectively. The magnitude of the contribution of child health to GDP per capita was generally higher than vice versa across countries in all income groups: Burkina Faso (41.7% vs 11.6%), Togo (12.2% vs 27.1%), Ghana (17.3% vs 7.8%), Ivory Coast (16.4% vs 9.7%), Botswana (33.4% vs 0.6%) and South Africa (29.3% vs 2.7%). The magnitude of the contribution of maternal health to GDP per capita was higher than the impact of the reverse relationship for the lower middle-income countries of Ghana (10.6% vs 2.4%) and Ivory Coast (82.3% vs 0.1%) and the upper middle-income countries of Botswana (2.3% vs 1.5%) and South Africa (25.6% vs 0.1%). However, the magnitude of the effect of GDP per capita on maternal health was higher than the other way around only for the lower income countries of Burkina Faso (27.9% vs 1.1%) and Togo (30.0% vs 3.8%). This study adds further policy support for improving maternal and child health to achieve substantial benefits on long-term economic growth in SSA.

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Section: Child Healthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do maternal and child health promote economic development? A case study of six sub-Saharan African countries

Klobodu¹,

J²,

Reed³

et al. 2018

AJFAND

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show abstract

“…For example, calorie increases have been widely shown to raise productivity, including among farmers in Sierra Leone, sugar cane workers in Guatemala and road construction workers in Kenya (Cornia and Stewart, 1995;Strauss, 1986;Immink and Viteri, 1981;Wolgemuth and others, 1982). A longitudinal study of a sample of children in Chile concluded that providing nutritional supplements to children to prevent malnutrition would generate benefi ts in terms of additional productivity six to eight times the cost of the intervention (Selowsky and Taylor, 1973). At the aggregate level also, health has been shown to be an important input into EG (Bloom, Canning and Sevilla, 2004).…”

Section: Chain B: From Hd To Egmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dynamic Links between the Economy and Human Development

Ranis

Stewart²

2005

UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) Working Papers

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This paper empirically confi rms the signifi cance of various links in each of two chains over time: from economic growth (EG) to human development (HD), including EG itself, income distribution, the social expenditure ratio and female education; from HD to EG, including HD itself, along with the investment ratio. Our most important conclusion concerns sequencing over time. EG, which is an important input into HD improvement, is itself not sustainable without such improvement, either prior or simultaneous. Therefore, traditional policy advice, which argues that HD improvements must wait until EG expansion makes it affordable, is likely to be in error.

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“…The productivity of sugarcane workers in Guatemala, for example, increases fairly immediately as their current intake of calories or micro-nutrients is increased (Strauss 1986;Immink and Viteri 1981;Wolgemuth et al 1982). A large longitudinal study of children in Chile showed that providing nutritional supplements to children would generate benefits six to eight times the cost of the intervention in terms of additional productivity (Selowsky and Taylor 1973). A similar study in Cali, Colombia found that a health/nutrition program increased the lifetime earnings of individuals from two and a half to nine times those of an illiterate worker (Selowsky 1981).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%