IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ehbiol/v49y2023ics1570677x23000187.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Indian Enigma revisited

Author

Listed:
  • von Grafenstein, Liza
  • Klasen, Stephan
  • Hoddinott, John

Abstract

This paper re-enters the contested discussion surrounding the Indian Enigma, the high prevalence of chronic undernutrition in India relative to sub-Saharan Africa. Jayachandran & Pande (JP) argue that the key to the Indian Enigma lies in the worse treatment of higher birth order children, particularly girls. Analyzing new data, and taking into account issues relating to robustness to model specification, weighting and existing critiques of JP., we find: (1) Parameter estimates are sensitive to sampling design and model specification; (2) The gap between the heights of pre-school African and Indian children is closing; (3) The gap does not appear to be driven by differential associations by birth order and child sex; (4) The remaining gap is associated with differences in maternal heights. If Indian women had the heights of their African counterparts, pre-school Indian children would be taller than pre-school African children; and (5) Once we account for survey design, sibling size and maternal height, the coefficient associated with being an Indian girl is no longer statistically significant.

Suggested Citation

  • von Grafenstein, Liza & Klasen, Stephan & Hoddinott, John, 2023. "The Indian Enigma revisited," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ehbiol:v:49:y:2023:i:c:s1570677x23000187
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ehb.2023.101237
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1570677X23000187
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ehb.2023.101237?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

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

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Harold Alderman & John Hoddinott & Bill Kinsey, 2006. "Long term consequences of early childhood malnutrition," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 58(3), pages 450-474, July.
    2. Aiyar, Anaka & Dhingra, Sunaina & Pingali, Prabhu, 2021. "Transitioning to an obese India: Demographic and structural determinants of the rapid rise in overweight incidence," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 43(C).
    3. Derek Headey & Kalle Hirvonen & John Hoddinott, 2018. "Animal Sourced Foods and Child Stunting," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 100(5), pages 1302-1319.
    4. Aiyar, Anaka & Cummins, Joseph R., 2021. "An age profile perspective on two puzzles in global child health: The Indian Enigma & economic growth," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    5. Finaret, Amelia B. & Masters, William A., 2020. "Can shorter mothers have taller children? Nutritional mobility, health equity and the intergenerational transmission of relative height," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 39(C).
    6. Seiler, Johannes & Harttgen, Kenneth & Kneib, Thomas & Lang, Stefan, 2021. "Modelling children's anthropometric status using Bayesian distributional regression merging socio-economic and remote sensed data from South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 40(C).
    7. Alacevich, Caterina & Tarozzi, Alessandro, 2017. "Child height and intergenerational transmission of health: Evidence from ethnic Indians in England," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 65-84.
    8. Spears, Dean & Coffey, Diane & Behrman, Jere R., 2022. "Endogenous inclusion in the Demographic and Health Survey anthropometric sample: Implications for studying height within households," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    9. Seema Jayachandran & Rohini Pande, 2017. "Why Are Indian Children So Short? The Role of Birth Order and Son Preference," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(9), pages 2600-2629, September.
    10. Puentes, Esteban & Wang, Fan & Behrman, Jere R. & Cunha, Flavio & Hoddinott, John & Maluccio, John A. & Adair, Linda S. & Borja, Judith B. & Martorell, Reynaldo & Stein, Aryeh D., 2016. "Early life height and weight production functions with endogenous energy and protein inputs," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 22(C), pages 65-81.
    11. Deshpande, Ashwini & Ramachandran, Rajesh, 2022. "Early childhood stunting and later life outcomes: A longitudinal analysis," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 44(C).
    12. Sunaina Dhingra & Prabhu L. Pingali, 2021. "Effects of short birth spacing on birth-order differences in child stunting: Evidence from India," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 118(8), pages 2017834118-, 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. Schneider, Eric B., 2023. "The determinants of child stunting and shifts in the growth pattern of children: a long-run, global review," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 120392, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    2. Ashwini Deshpande & Rajesh Ramachandran, 2023. "Stunting and Social Identity: Revisiting the India - Africa Comparison," Working Papers 97, Ashoka University, Department of Economics.
    3. Cummins, Joseph & Guo, Jingyan & Agarwal, Neha & Aiyar, Anaka & Jain, Vaishali & Bergmann, Andrew, 2024. "Caste Differences in Child Growth: Disentangling Endowment and Investment Effects," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).
    4. Chandna, Arjita & Bhagowalia, Priya, 2024. "Birth order and children’s health and learning outcomes in India," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).

    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. Chandna, Arjita & Bhagowalia, Priya, 2024. "Birth order and children’s health and learning outcomes in India," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    2. Schneider, Eric & Ogasawara, Kota & Cole, Tim J., 2020. "The Effect of the Second World War on the Growth Pattern of Height in Japanese Children: Catch-up Growth, Critical Windows and," CEPR Discussion Papers 14808, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    3. Schneider, Eric B., 2023. "The determinants of child stunting and shifts in the growth pattern of children: a long-run, global review," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 120392, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Nancy Luke & Kaivan Munshi & Anu Oommen & Swapnil Singh, 2021. "Economic Development, the Nutrition Trap and Metabolic Disease," NBER Working Papers 29132, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Eric B. Schneider & Kota Ogasawara & Tim J. Cole, 2021. "Health Shocks, Recovery, and the First Thousand Days: The Effect of the Second World War on Height Growth in Japanese Children," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 47(4), pages 1075-1105, December.
    6. Pérez-Mesa, David & Marrero, Gustavo A. & Darias-Curvo, Sara, 2021. "Child health inequality in Sub-Saharan Africa," MPRA Paper 108801, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Ashwini Deshpande & Rajesh Ramachandran, 2020. "Which Indian Children are Short and Why? Social Identity, Childhood Malnutrition and Cognitive Outcomes," Working Papers 27, Ashoka University, Department of Economics.
    8. Baez, Javier E. & Kshirsagar, Varun & Skoufias, Emmanuel, 2024. "Drought-sensitive targeting and child growth faltering in Southern Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 182(C).
    9. Spears, Dean & Coffey, Diane & Behrman, Jere R., 2022. "Endogenous inclusion in the Demographic and Health Survey anthropometric sample: Implications for studying height within households," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    10. Marending, Myriam & Tripodi, Stefano, 2022. "Gone with the Wind: The Welfare Effect of Desert Locust Outbreaks," Working Papers 1-2022, Copenhagen Business School, Department of Economics.
    11. Abhishek Dureja & Digvijay S. Negi, 2024. "Birth Order Effects in Maternal Health-Seeking Behavior: Evidence from India," Working Papers 118, Ashoka University, Department of Economics.
    12. Vikram, Kriti & Chindarkar, Namrata, 2020. "Bridging the gaps in cognitive achievement in India: The crucial role of the integrated child development services in early childhood," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    13. Blom, Sylvia & Ortiz-Bobea, Ariel & Hoddinott, John, 2022. "Heat exposure and child nutrition: Evidence from West Africa," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    14. Namulondo, Racheal & Bashaasha, Bernard, 2024. "Household milk production, milk purchase and child nutrition: Panel data evidence from rural Uganda," African Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, African Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 19(1), March.
    15. Bauer, Jan M. & Mburu, Samuel, 2017. "Effects of drought on child health in Marsabit District, Northern Kenya," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 74-79.
    16. Cruzatti C., John & Rieger, Matthias, 2024. "Shaken, Not Stunted? Global Evidence on Natural Disasters, Child Growth and Recovery," IZA Discussion Papers 17372, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    17. Aurino, Elisabetta & Lleras-Muney, Adriana & Tarozzi, Alessandro & Tinoco, Brendan, 2023. "The rise and fall of SES gradients in heights around the world," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    18. Aparajita Dasgupta & Anisha Sharma, 2024. "How does a ban on sex‐selective abortions affect child health?," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(2), pages 280-309, February.
    19. Menon, Nidhiya & McQueeney, Kathleen, 2020. "Christianity and girl child health in India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    20. Aiyar, Anaka & Cummins, Joseph R., 2021. "An age profile perspective on two puzzles in global child health: The Indian Enigma & economic growth," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Nutrition; India; Sub-Saharan Africa; Height; Indian Enigma;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • I15 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health and Economic Development
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
    • O57 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Comparative Studies of Countries
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

    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:eee:ehbiol:v:49:y:2023:i:c:s1570677x23000187. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/622964 .

    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.