TheEffectsofChildhoodHealthonEduca4on - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

The
Effects
of
Childhood
Health
on
Educa4on
 and
Economic
Outcomes
in
Adulthood

Presented
at
the
90th
WEAI
Conference
 
June
the
30th,
2015
 Jaime
A.
Meza‐Cordero,
Ph.D.
 Research
Associate,
IMPAQ
InternaEonal


IntroducEon


• EducaEon
compleEon
levels
and
economic

• utcomes
are
hard
to
predict
at
early
stages
in


life
as
there
are
numerous
and
cumulaEve
 determinants
that
are
given
and
acquired
 throughout
the
life
cycle.


• This
research
focus
on
assessing
exisEng


correlaEons
between
health
and
nutriEon
in
 early
life
with
educaEonal/economic
outcomes
 in
adulthood
for
the
case
of
Costa
Rica.



Outline


• Research
QuesEon
and
Hypothesis

• ObjecEves

• ExisEng
Literature

• Data:
Costa
Rican
Longevity
and
Healthy
Aging


Study
(CRELES)


• Empirical
Strategy

• Findings

• Conclusions
and
Policy
ImplicaEons

• Future
Research


Research
QuesEon
and
Hypothesis


• Research
QuesEon:
Are
health
and
nutriEon
in


early
life
somehow
associated
with
 educaEonal/economic
success
in
adulthood?


• Hypothesis:
Health
and
nutriEon
during


childhood
plays
a
fundamental
role
in
the
 accumulaEon
of
human
capital,
allowing
 healthier
children
to
learn
more
and
be
more
 producEve
as
adults.



ObjecEves


• ObjecEve
1:
Assess
the
associaEon
between


early
life
health
and
early
life
nutriEon
with
 educaEon
outcomes
in
adulthood.


• ObjecEve
2:
Assess
the
associaEon
between


early
life
health
and
early
life
nutriEon
with
 economic
outcomes
in
adulthood.






ExisEng
Literature


• Be\er
health
facilitates
individuals
to
improve


their
SES
(Strauss
and
Thomas,
1998).


• However,
low
SES
leads
to
late
detecEon
of


health
condiEons,
affecEng
the
capacity
to
 work
and
leading
to
lower
savings
(Adams,
 Hurd,
McFadden,
Merril,
Ribeiro,
2004).


ExisEng
Literature


• Maluccio
et
al.
(2009)
analyzed
the
effects
of


childhood
nutriEon
on
educaEonal
outcomes,
 finding
that
treated
female
children
increase
their
 school
compleEon.


• Smith,
Shen,
Strauss,
Zhe
and
Zhao’s
(2012)


explored
the
effects
of
childhood
health
on
 socioeconomic
status
using
data
from
the
China
 Health
and
ReErement
Longitudinal
Study.
Their
 main
findings
are
that
good
health
as
a
child
is
 associated
with
an
increase
in
per‐capita
 expenses,
and
adult
height
is
strongly
related
to
 years
of
schooling
completed.





Data


• The
data
for
this
study
comes
from
the
first


wave
of
CRELES,
a
longitudinal
study
of
2827
 adults
born
in
1945
or
before
(ages
60
and


• ver
during
the
first
interview)
with

• versampling
of
the
older.

• The
survey
collected
informaEon
on
early
age


and
current
health,
cogniEve
funcEoning
tests
 and
socioeconomic
outcomes.




Summary
StaEsEcs


Empirical
Strategy


• The
explanatory
variables
are
self‐reported


childhood
health
and
height
to
the
knee,
as
 they
represent
early
life
health
and
nutriEon
 proxies
respecEvely.


• The
dependent
variables
are
years
of


educa4on
completed
and
log
income.




Findings:
EducaEon
CompleEon


Column
(1)
includes
age
cohort
and
foreign
born
dummies.
Column
(2)
includes
age
 cohort,
foreign
born
and
district
of
birth
dummies.



Findings:
Log
Income


Column
(1)
includes
age
cohort
and
foreign
born
dummies.
Column
(2)
includes
age
 cohort,
foreign
born
and
district
of
birth
dummies.



Conclusions


• The
results
suggest
that
childhood
health
is
highly


associated
with
educaEon/economic
outcomes,
 for
both
men
and
women
in
Costa
Rica.


• As
it
has
been
presented
in
the
literature,


healthier
kids
are
most
likely
to
achieve
higher
 educaEon
compleEon,
especially
females.
Also
 consistent
with
the
exisEng
literature,
be\er
 nutriEon
seems
to
lead
males
to
higher
paying


• ccupaEons.




Policy
ImplicaEons


• A
policy
implicaEon
derived
from
this
study
is


that
governments
should
pay
primordial
 a\enEon
to
the
health
care
of
children,
as
this
 will
have
significant
repercussions
in
their
 human
capital
accumulaEon.


• Another
policy
implicaEon
is
that


governments
must
Emely
share
informaEon
 about
infant
nutriEon
with
families,
as
this
will
 have
affect
their
future
producEvity/income.


Future
Research


• Upcoming
studies
can
make
use
of
very


important
informaEon
contained
in
the
 biomarkers
secEon
of
CRELES,
such
as
 cholesterol
and
corEsol.


• Further
research
also
has
the
potenEal
to


analyze
causal
pathways
that
would
help
 explain
how
early
life
health
can
affect
other
 determinants
such
as
adult
health
and
lifestyle
 behaviors.