Food Transfers and Child Nutrition: Evidence from India's Public Distribution System

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Shrinivas, Aditya; Baylis, Kathy; Crost, Benjamin
• 署名单位: Indian Institute of Management (IIM System); Indian Institute of Management Bangalore; University of California System; University of California Santa Barbara; University of Calgary
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-APPLIED ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7782
• DOI: 10.1257/app.20220505
• 发表日期: 2025
• 页码: 161-207
• 关键词: animal-source foods; linear growth; price subsidies; CLIMATE-CHANGE; low-income; HEALTH; intervention; cash; undernutrition; CONSEQUENCES

摘要

biggest expansions in food transfers in history, affecting over 500 million people. We use plausibly exogenous variation created by the NFSA to estimate the effect of food transfers on child nutrition. Using individual panel data across eight states in India over five years, we find that increased transfers significantly reduced stunting. The food transfers increased wage incomes and improved dietary diversity. Our results suggest that, in the states we study, the NFSA prevented approximately 1.8 million children from being stunted (JEL I12, I18, I38, J13, O12)