Hanan G. Jacoby

Early childhood nutrition and academic achievement: a longitudinal analysis

Abstract Many policymakers propose early childhood nutrition programs as a way to increase students’ academic achievement. This paper investigates the nutrition–learning nexus using a unique longitudinal data set that follows a large sample of Filipino children from birth until the end of their primary education. We find that better nourished children perform significantly better in school, partly because they enter school earlier and thus have more time to learn but mostly because of greater learning productivity per year of schooling. Our cost–benefit analysis suggests that a dollar invested in an early childhood nutrition program in a developing country could potentially return at least three dollars worth of gains in academic achievement, and perhaps much more.

Access to Markets and the Benefits of Rural Roads

Roads play a central role in rural development, yet little is known about the size and distribution of benefits from such investments. This paper develops a method for estimating household-level benefits from road projects using the relationship between the value of farmland and its distance to agricultural markets. The empirical analysis, using data from Nepal, suggests that providing extensive road access to markets would confer substantial benefits on average, much of these going to poor households. However, the benefits would not be large enough or targeted efficiently enough to appreciably reduce income inequality in the population.

Student Achievement and Schooling Choice in Low-Income Countries: Evidence from Ghana

In this paper we present new evidence on the impact of school characteristics on student achievement using an unusually rich data set from Ghana. We deal with two potentially important selectivity issues in the developing country context: the sorting of higher ability children into better schools, and the high incidence of both delayed school enrollment and early leaving. Our empirical results do not reveal any strong selectivity bias. We also highlight the indirect effects of improving school quality on student achievement through increased grade attainment. A cost-benefit analysis, taking into account these indirect effects, shows that repairing classrooms (a policy option ignored in most education production function studies) is a cost-effective investment in Ghana, relative to providing more instructional materials and improving teacher quality.

An Economic Analysis of Delayed Primary School Enrollment in a Low Income Country: The Role of Early Childhood Nutrition

This paper investigates why children in low income countries often delay primary school enrollment, despite the prediction of human capital theory that schooling will begin at the earliest possible age. We explore several explanations for delayed enrollment, but focus on the hypothesis that delays are rational responses to early childhood malnutrition. We test these alternative hypotheses using recent data from Ghana. Our estimates, which address a number of previously ignored econometric issues, firmly support the hypothesis that early childhood malnutrition causes delayed enrollment. We find little or no support for alternative explanations based on borrowing constraints and the rationing of places in school. Copyright 1995 by MIT Press.

Borrowing Constraints and Progress through School: Evidence from Peru

This paper investigates the effect of borrowing constraints on the timing of human capital investment in a developing country by looking at how quickly children with different family backgrounds progress through the primary school system in Peru. The main findings are that children start withdrawing from school earlier, as indicated by repetition of grades, in households with lower income and durable good holdings and when children are more closely spaced. Behavior also differs as predicted between children from households that appear to be borrowing constrained and those that appear unconstrained. Copyright 1994 by MIT Press.

Governing the commons? Water and power in Pakistan's Indus Basin

Surface irrigation is a common pool resource characterized by asymmetric appropriation opportunities across upstream and downstream water users. Large canal systems are also predominantly managed by the state. This paper studies water allocation under an irrigation bureaucracy subject to corruption and rent-seeking. Data on the landholdings and political influence of nearly a quarter million irrigators in Pakistans vast Indus Basin watershed allow the construction of a novel index of lobbying power. Consistent with a model of misgovernance, the decline in water availability and land values from channel head to tail is accentuated along canals having greater lobbying power at the head than at the tail.

Testing Theories of Consumption Behavior Using Information on Aggregate Shocks: Income Seasonality and Rainfall in Rural India

We develop an integrated framework for testing theories of consumption behavior by examining how agricultural households in rural India respond to anticipated and unanticipated seasonal income fluctuations. Using information on village-level rainfall surprises, we estimate idiosyncratic unanticipated income shocks by allowing weather risk to impact households differently depending on observable characteristics. In applying our methodology to unique panel data on consumption, debt, and intrahousehold gift exchanges, we address a number of shortcomings in previous tests of theories of consumption behavior. Yet, we find no evidence against the hypothesis that households smooth idiosyncratic fluctuations in their income. Our approach also uncovers several interesting features of rural credit and insurance markets. Copyright 1998, Oxford University Press.

The Balance of Self-Reported Heterosexual Activity in KAP Surveys and the AIDS Epidemic in Africa

Abstract The AIDS epidemic in Africa depends on heterosexual behavior, about which little is known. National Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices (KAP) surveys are a potentially important data source but are compromised because women report less—often, much less—sexual activity than men. This imbalance is investigated using questions on the type of activity (with regular or casual partners and involving compensation) and on the duration of abstinence (time since last act), as well as other socioeconomic variables. Evidence from a hazard analysis and other information suggest that the imbalance may originate in the failure of respondents to answer accurately rather than the systematic undersampling of particular respondents, such as prostitutes. If so, the imbalance does not reflect an epidemic driven by a small group of high-activity women—the core group model—but rather a more diffuse sexual network. The contrasting implications of these hypotheses for the dynamics of the epidemic have been stressed by the...

Self-Selection and the Redistributive Impact of In-Kind Transfers: An Econometric Analysis

Self-targeting welfare programs have received increasing attention from economists and policymakers alike. This paper provides evidence on the redistributive impact of transferring low-quality goods in-kind. I study a school feeding program in Jamaica, which distributes a bland snack to all students. Poorer households and those with a greater number of eligible children are found significantly more likely to self-select into the program. But, against these targeting benefits is a large estimated dead-weight loss.

Incomplete Contracts and Investment: A Study of Land Tenancy in Pakistan

When contracts are incomplete, relationship-specific investments may be underprovided due to the threat of opportunistic expropriation or holdup. The authors find evidence of such underinvestment on tenanted land in rural Pakistan. Using data from households cultivating multiple plots under different tenure arrangements, they show that land-specific investment is lower on leased plots. This result is robust to the possible effects of asymmetric information in the leasing market. Greater tenure security also increases land-specific investment on leased plots. Moreover, variation in tenure security appears to be driven largely by heterogeneity across landlords, suggesting that reputation may be important in mitigating the holdup problem.