Nutrition, information and household behavior: Experimental evidence from Malawi

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Fitzsimons, Emla; Malde, Bansi; Mesnard, Alice; Vera-Hernandez, Marcos
• 署名单位: University of London; University College London; UCL Institute of Education; University of London; University College London; City St Georges, University of London; University of London; London School Economics & Political Science
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0304-3878
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2016.05.002
• 发表日期: 2016
• 页码: 113-126
• 关键词: infant health; Health information; labor supply; Cluster randomized control trial

摘要

Incorrect knowledge of the health production function may lead to inefficient household choices and thereby to the production of suboptimal levels of health. This paper studies the effects of a randomized intervention in rural Malawi that, over a six-month period, provided mothers of young infants with information on child nutrition without supplying any monetary or in-kind resources. A simple model first investigates theoretically how nutrition and other household choices including labor supply may change in response to the improved nutrition knowledge observed in the intervention areas. We then show empirically that the intervention improved child nutrition, household food consumption and consequently health. We find evidence that labor supply increased, which might have contributed to partially fund the increase in food consumption. This paper is the first to study whether non-health choices, particularly parental labor supply, might be affected by parents' knowledge of the child health production function. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.