IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/deveco/v54y2016i3p243-256.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Is There any Threshold in the Relationship Between Mother's Education and Child Health? Evidence from Nigeria

Author

Listed:
  • Meherun Ahmed
  • Kazi Iqbal

Abstract

type="main"> The literature on mother's education and child health casually observes some nonlinearities and also a threshold in the relationship. Even though this nonlinearity or threshold has significant bearing on policy matters such as quality of education, any rigorous attempt to address this issue is missing in the literature. With height for age z-score as a proxy for long-run child health capital, regression results reveal that there are significant effects of mother's education on child health if mothers do not continue past primary school. Rather, poor quality of education at the primary level, especially literacy, is argued to have given rise to this threshold. It indicates that greater public investment in improving quality of education at the primary level is essential for maximizing the nonmarket outcomes of girls’ education in developing countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Meherun Ahmed & Kazi Iqbal, 2016. "Is There any Threshold in the Relationship Between Mother's Education and Child Health? Evidence from Nigeria," The Developing Economies, Institute of Developing Economies, vol. 54(3), pages 243-256, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:deveco:v:54:y:2016:i:3:p:243-256
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/deve.12109
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lavy, Victor & Strauss, John & Thomas, Duncan & de Vreyer, Philippe, 1996. "Quality of health care, survival and health outcomes in Ghana," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(3), pages 333-357, June.
    2. Esther Duflo, 2001. "Schooling and Labor Market Consequences of School Construction in Indonesia: Evidence from an Unusual Policy Experiment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(4), pages 795-813, September.
    3. Jens Kovsted & Claus C. Pörtner & Finn Tarp, 2002. "Child Health and Mortality: Does Health Knowledge Matter?," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 11(4), pages 542-560.
    4. Duncan Thomas, 1994. "Like Father, like Son; Like Mother, like Daughter: Parental Resources and Child Height," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 29(4), pages 950-988.
    5. Alain Mingat & Barbara Bruns & Ramahatra Rakotomalala, 2003. "Achieving universal primary education by 2015 - a chance for every child," Post-Print halshs-00006556, HAL.
    6. Bruce E. Hansen, 2000. "Sample Splitting and Threshold Estimation," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 68(3), pages 575-604, May.
    7. Vegas, Emiliana & Petrow, Jenny, 2008. "Raising Student Learning in Latin America: The Challenge for the 21st Century," IDB Publications (Books), Inter-American Development Bank, number 355, December.
    8. Emiliana Vegas & Jenny Petrow, 2008. "Raising Student Learning in Latin America : The Challenge for the Twenty-First Century," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 6802.
    9. Duncan Thomas & John Strauss & Maria-Helena Henriques, 1991. "How Does Mother's Education Affect Child Height?," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 26(2), pages 183-211.
    10. Sonalde Desai & Soumya Alva, 1998. "Maternal education and child health: Is there a strong causal relationship?," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 35(1), pages 71-81, February.
    11. repec:idb:brikps:59738 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Barbara Bruns & Alain Mingat & Ramahatra Rakotomalala, 2003. "Achieving Universal Primary Education by 2015 : A Chance for Every Child," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 15121.
    13. Card, David, 2001. "Estimating the Return to Schooling: Progress on Some Persistent Econometric Problems," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 69(5), pages 1127-1160, September.
    14. Emily Levitt & Kees Kostermans & Luc Laviolette & Nkosinathi Mbuya, 2011. "Malnutrition in Afghanistan : Scale, Scope, Causes, and Potential Response," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 2518.
    15. Paul Glewwe, 1999. "Why Does Mother's Schooling Raise Child Health in Developing Countries? Evidence from Morocco," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 34(1), pages 124-159.
    16. Emiliana Vegas & Jenny Petrow, 2008. "Raising Student Learning in Latin America: The Challenge for the 21st Century," IDB Publications (Books), Inter-American Development Bank, number 59738, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Hieu T. M. Nguyen & Blane D. Lewis, 2020. "Teenage Marriage and Motherhood in Vietnam: The Negative Effects of Starting School Early," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 39(4), pages 739-762, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lay, Jann, 2010. "MDG Achievements, Determinants, and Resource Needs: What Has Been Learnt?," GIGA Working Papers 137, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies.
    2. Deniz Karaoğlan & Dürdane Şirin Saraçoğlu, 2018. "Socio-Economic Factors Affecting Early Childhood Health: the Case of Turkey," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 11(3), pages 1051-1075, June.
    3. Chen, Yuyu & Li, Hongbin, 2009. "Mother's education and child health: Is there a nurturing effect?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 413-426, March.
    4. Blunch, Niels-Hugo, 2013. "Staying Alive: Adult Literacy Programs and Child Mortality in Rural Ghana," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 114-126.
    5. Lépine, Aurélia & Strobl, Eric, 2013. "The Effect of Women’s Bargaining Power on Child Nutrition in Rural Senegal," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 17-30.
    6. Sirin Saracoglu & Deniz KARAOĞLAN**, 2017. "Socio-Economic Factors Affecting Early Childhood Health: The Case Of Turkey," EcoMod2017 10749, EcoMod.
    7. Alderman, Harold & Headey, Derek D., 2017. "How Important is Parental Education for Child Nutrition?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 448-464.
    8. Ahsan, Md Nazmul & Maharaj, Riddhi, 2018. "Parental human capital and child health at birth in India," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 130-149.
    9. Bando, Rosangela & Li, Xia, 2014. "The Effect of In-Service Teacher Training on Student Learning of English as a Second Language," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 6596, Inter-American Development Bank.
    10. Deniz Karaoğlan & Dürdane Şirin Saracoğlu, 2016. "Socio-Economic Factors Affecting Early Childhood Health: The Case of Turkey," ERC Working Papers 1614, ERC - Economic Research Center, Middle East Technical University, revised 2016.
    11. Nandi, Arindam & Haberland, Nicole & Ngo, Thoai D., 2023. "The impact of primary schooling expansion on adult educational attainment, literacy, and health: Evidence from India’s Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    12. Paul Rodríguez Lesmes & José Trujillo & Daniel Valderrama, 2013. "Más allá de la infraestructura: el impacto de las bibliotecas públicas en la calidad de la educación," Documentos de Trabajo 10499, Universidad del Rosario.
    13. Marshall Makate, 2016. "Education Policy and Under-Five Survival in Uganda: Evidence from the Demographic and Health Surveys," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 5(4), pages 1-17, October.
    14. Daniel Ortega, 2010. "Human Development of Peoples," Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(2), pages 229-257.
    15. Steven Block, 2002. "Nutrition Knowledge Versus Schooling in the Demand for Child Micronutrient Status," Working Papers in Food Policy and Nutrition 10, Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy.
    16. Michael Lokshin & Sergiy Radyakin, 2012. "Month of Birth and Children’s Health in India," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 47(1), pages 174-203.
    17. Niels-Hugo Blunch & Nabanita Datta Gupta, 2020. "Mothers’ health knowledge for children with diarrhea: who you are or who you know?," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 18(4), pages 1131-1164, December.
    18. Aslam, Monazza & Kingdon, Geeta Gandhi, 2012. "Parental Education and Child Health—Understanding the Pathways of Impact in Pakistan," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(10), pages 2014-2032.
    19. Francesco Burchi, 2012. "Whose education affects a child’s nutritional status? From parents' to household's education," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 27(23), pages 681-704.
    20. Niels-Hugo Blunch, 2018. "A Teenager in Love: Multidimensional Human Capital and Teenage Pregnancy in Ghana," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(3), pages 557-573, March.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:deveco:v:54:y:2016:i:3:p:243-256. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/idegvjp.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.