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Welfare Grants and Their Impact on Child Health: The Case of Sri Lanka

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  • Himaz, Rozana

Abstract

Summary This paper asks whether an exogenous increase in income in the context of a poverty alleviation program has an impact on child anthropometric outcomes. The study looks at the Samurdhi Program in Sri Lanka, and uses household data for 1999/2000. Using propensity score matching to account for selectivity bias, the paper finds that Samurdhi improves the height-for-age z-score of a child from a grant-receiving family by roughly 0.40 standard deviations with the impact driven mainly by children between six, and 36 months of age, compared to if they did not receive the grant. It also improves weight-for-height z-scores by around 0.45 standard deviations of children aged 36-60 months. These results are important for Sri Lanka, where child nutrition is a cause for concern.

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  • Himaz, Rozana, 2008. "Welfare Grants and Their Impact on Child Health: The Case of Sri Lanka," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 36(10), pages 1843-1857, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:36:y:2008:i:10:p:1843-1857
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    3. Richard Groot & Tia Palermo & Sudhanshu Handa & Luigi Peter Ragno & Amber Peterman, 2017. "Themed Issue: Cash Transfers and Microfinance," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 35(5), pages 621-643, September.
    4. Eva Deuchert & Christina Felfe, 2013. "The Tempest: Natural Disasters, Early Shocks and Children's Short- and Long-Run Development," CESifo Working Paper Series 4168, CESifo.
    5. Lara Cockx & Nathalie Francken, 2016. "Evolution and impact of EU aid for food and nutrition security: a review," Working Papers of Department of Economics, Leuven 540512, KU Leuven, Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), Department of Economics, Leuven.
    6. Felfe, Christina & Deuchert. Eva, 2011. "The tempest: Using a natural disaster to evaluate the link between wealth and child development," Economics Working Paper Series 1146, University of St. Gallen, School of Economics and Political Science.
    7. Marco Sanfilippo & Bruno Martorano & Chris De Neubourg, 2012. "The Impact of Social Protection on Children: A review of the literature," Papers inwopa666, Innocenti Working Papers.
    8. Manley, James & Gitter, Seth & Slavchevska, Vanya, 2013. "How Effective are Cash Transfers at Improving Nutritional Status?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 133-155.
    9. Chen, Yi & Lei, Xiaoyan & Zhou, Li-An, 2010. "Child Health and the Income Gradient: Evidence from China," IZA Discussion Papers 5182, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Wang, Jinxian & Wang, Yangjie & Sun, Cuicui & Chen, Xiaohong, 2021. "Does mandatory air quality information disclosure raise happiness? Evidence from China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
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