Early childhood nutrition, schooling, and sibling inequality in a dynamic context: evidence from South Africa

This paper examines the effects of early childhood nutrition on schooling inputs and outcomes to assess the dynamic nature of human capital production, using panel data from South Africa. Height-for-age Z-score is used as a measure of health and nutritional status in early childhood. Based on a comp...

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Autor principal: Yamauchi, Futoshi
Formato: Artículo preliminar
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: International Food Policy Research Institute 2006
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/160400
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author Yamauchi, Futoshi
author_browse Yamauchi, Futoshi
author_facet Yamauchi, Futoshi
author_sort Yamauchi, Futoshi
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description This paper examines the effects of early childhood nutrition on schooling inputs and outcomes to assess the dynamic nature of human capital production, using panel data from South Africa. Height-for-age Z-score is used as a measure of health and nutritional status in early childhood. Based on a comparison of siblings, this analysis concludes that improving children’s health significantly lowers the age when they start school, increases grade attainment, and decreases grade repetition in the early stage of schooling. However, this positive effect diminishes at later stages. The results also show that households allocate more of their resources (such as school fee expenditure) to healthy children at the early stage, although wealthier households may invest more in less well endowed children in an attempt to reduce sibling inequality. However, fewer resources are allocated to healthy children at later stages. By the time of transition from primary to secondary school, the healthy child can increase household income by seeking employment in the labor market. In other words, while health capital augments the efficiency of investment in schooling at the early stage, it may increase opportunity costs at the later stage, which may deter investment in schooling.
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spelling CGSpace1604002025-11-06T07:21:00Z Early childhood nutrition, schooling, and sibling inequality in a dynamic context: evidence from South Africa Yamauchi, Futoshi children nutrition south africa evaluation economic aspects gender human capital education anthropometry This paper examines the effects of early childhood nutrition on schooling inputs and outcomes to assess the dynamic nature of human capital production, using panel data from South Africa. Height-for-age Z-score is used as a measure of health and nutritional status in early childhood. Based on a comparison of siblings, this analysis concludes that improving children’s health significantly lowers the age when they start school, increases grade attainment, and decreases grade repetition in the early stage of schooling. However, this positive effect diminishes at later stages. The results also show that households allocate more of their resources (such as school fee expenditure) to healthy children at the early stage, although wealthier households may invest more in less well endowed children in an attempt to reduce sibling inequality. However, fewer resources are allocated to healthy children at later stages. By the time of transition from primary to secondary school, the healthy child can increase household income by seeking employment in the labor market. In other words, while health capital augments the efficiency of investment in schooling at the early stage, it may increase opportunity costs at the later stage, which may deter investment in schooling. 2006 2024-11-21T09:50:41Z 2024-11-21T09:50:41Z Working Paper https://hdl.handle.net/10568/160400 en Open Access application/pdf International Food Policy Research Institute Yamauchi, Futoshi. Early childhood nutrition, schooling, and sibling inequality in a dynamic context: evidence from South Africa. FCND Discussion Paper 203. International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://hdl.handle.net/10568/160400
spellingShingle children
nutrition
south africa
evaluation
economic aspects
gender
human capital
education
anthropometry
Yamauchi, Futoshi
Early childhood nutrition, schooling, and sibling inequality in a dynamic context: evidence from South Africa
title Early childhood nutrition, schooling, and sibling inequality in a dynamic context: evidence from South Africa
title_full Early childhood nutrition, schooling, and sibling inequality in a dynamic context: evidence from South Africa
title_fullStr Early childhood nutrition, schooling, and sibling inequality in a dynamic context: evidence from South Africa
title_full_unstemmed Early childhood nutrition, schooling, and sibling inequality in a dynamic context: evidence from South Africa
title_short Early childhood nutrition, schooling, and sibling inequality in a dynamic context: evidence from South Africa
title_sort early childhood nutrition schooling and sibling inequality in a dynamic context evidence from south africa
topic children
nutrition
south africa
evaluation
economic aspects
gender
human capital
education
anthropometry
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/160400
work_keys_str_mv AT yamauchifutoshi earlychildhoodnutritionschoolingandsiblinginequalityinadynamiccontextevidencefromsouthafrica