Parental compensatory behaviors and early child health outcomes in Cebu, Philippines

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Liu, Haiyong; Mroz, Thomas; Adair, Linda
• 署名单位: Clemson University; University of North Carolina; East Carolina University; University of North Carolina; University of North Carolina Chapel Hill
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0304-3878
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2008.12.001
• 发表日期: 2009
• 页码: 209-230
• 关键词: Health production function; Parental health inputs; unobserved heterogeneity

摘要

A dynamic optimization model of parents choosing investments in their children's health motivates an empirical model of parents' choices of health inputs for their children and the impacts of these decisions on their children's subsequent health. Estimates of the child health input demand functions and the child health production functions from the Cebu Longitudinal Health and Nutrition Survey accord with the prediction that optimizing behavior results in higher levels of aggregate child health. Observable parental behaviors respond to the physical developmental status of their children. These parental responses appear to yield large and statistically significant improvements in children's early physiological outcomes. However, because some health inputs choices are not observable, it is impossible to ascertain whether these measured effects are due solely to variations in the observed input choices. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.