Birth Weight and Cognitive Development during Childhood: Evidence from India

Arbeitspapier

Health at birth is an important indicator of human capital development over the life course. This paper uses longitudinal data from the Young Lives survey and employs instrumental variable regression models to estimate the effect of birth weight on cognitive development during childhood in India. We find that a 10 percent increase in birth weight increases cognitive test score by 8.1 percent or 0.11 standard deviations at ages 5-8 years. Low birth weight infants experienced a lower test score compared with normal birth weight infants. The positive effect of birth weight on a cognitive test score is larger for boys, children from rural or poor households, and those with less-educated mothers. Our findings suggest that health policies designed to improve birth weight could improve human capital in resource-poor settings.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: GLO Discussion Paper ; No. 358

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Health Behavior ; Health and Economic Development ; Health: Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health ; Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth ; Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity ; Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
• Subject: Birth weight ; Test score ; Cognition ; PPVT ; Children ; Instrumental variable ; India

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Kumar, Santosh ; Kumar, Kaushalendra ; Laxminarayan, Ramanan ; Nandi, Arindam
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Global Labor Organization (GLO)
• (where): Essen
• (when): 2019

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/199014
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:43 AM CET