Encouraging parents to invest: A randomized trial with two simple interventions in early childhood

Arbeitspapier

The lottery of birth draws some children into deprived environments and others into environments where they thrive. In a field experiment in rural India with 10-20 months old children we test two scalable interventions to reduce early disadvantages in health and mental development. We distribute a durable device for home iron fortification of meals, called the Lucky Iron Leaf, and picture books together with a training for caregivers in dialogic reading. We find no significant average impact of either intervention on anemia or mental development. However, we find a cross-productivity of children's baseline health and the interventions' effectiveness. Children, who are non-anemic at baseline, improve in receptive language skills by half a standard deviation one year after implementation.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: Discussion Papers ; No. 276

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Microeconomic Policy: Formulation, Implementation, and Evaluation ; Health Behavior ; Health and Economic Development ; Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
• Subject: Early Childhood ; Parental Investment ; Nutrition ; Health Behavior ; Human Capital

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Ebert, Cara ; Heesemann, Esther Luise ; Vollmer, Sebastian
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Courant Research Centre - Poverty, Equity and Growth (CRC-PEG)
• (where): Göttingen
• (when): 2020

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/221911
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:43 AM CET