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Misreporting Month of Birth: Diagnosis and Implications for Research on Nutrition and Early Childhood in Developing Countries

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Listed:
  • Anna Folke Larsen

    (University of Copenhagen)

  • Derek Headey

    (International Food Policy Research Institute)

  • William A. Masters

    (Tufts University)

Abstract

A large literature has used children’s birthdays to identify exposure to shocks and estimate their impacts on later outcomes. Using height-for-age z scores (HAZ) for more than 990,000 children in 62 countries from 163 Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), we show how random errors in birth dates create artifacts in HAZ that can be used to diagnose the extent of age misreporting. The most important artifact is an upward gradient in HAZ by recorded month of birth (MOB) from start to end of calendar years, resulting in a large HAZ differential between December- and January-born children of –0.32 HAZ points. We observe a second artifact associated with round ages, with a downward gradient in HAZ by recorded age in months, and then an upward step after reaching ages 2, 3, and 4. These artifacts have previously been interpreted as actual health shocks. We show that they are not related to agroclimatic conditions but are instead linked to the type of calendar used and arise mainly when enumerators do not see the child’s birth registration cards. We explain the size of the December–January gap through simulation in which 11 % of children have their birth date replaced by a random month. We find a minor impact on the average stunting rate but a larger impact in specific error-prone surveys. We further show how misreporting MOB causes attenuation bias when MOB is used for identification of shock exposure as well as systematic bias in the impact on HAZ of events that occur early or late in each calendar year.

Suggested Citation

  • Anna Folke Larsen & Derek Headey & William A. Masters, 2019. "Misreporting Month of Birth: Diagnosis and Implications for Research on Nutrition and Early Childhood in Developing Countries," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 56(2), pages 707-728, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:demogr:v:56:y:2019:i:2:d:10.1007_s13524-018-0753-9
    DOI: 10.1007/s13524-018-0753-9
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    2. Abay, Kibrom A. & Abate, Gashaw T. & Barrett, Christopher B. & Bernard, Tanguy, 2019. "Correlated non-classical measurement errors, ‘Second best’ policy inference, and the inverse size-productivity relationship in agriculture," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 171-184.
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    5. Li, Zhiyun & Ortiz-Bobea, Ariel, 2022. "On the Timing of Relevant Weather Conditions in Agriculture," 2022 Allied Social Sciences Association (ASSA) Annual Meeting (Virtual), January 7-9, 2022 316528, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    6. Thiede, Brian C. & Chen, Joyce & Mueller, Valerie & Jia, Yuanyuan & Hultquist, Carolynne, 2020. "It’s Raining Babies? Flooding and Fertility Choices in Bangladesh," SocArXiv cz482, Center for Open Science.
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    8. Randell, Heather & Gray, Clark & Grace, Kathryn, 2020. "Stunted from the start: Early life weather conditions and child undernutrition in Ethiopia," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 261(C).
    9. Mensah,Justice Tei & Hirfrfot,Kibrom Tafere & Abay,Kibrom A., 2022. "Saving Lives through Technology : Mobile Phones and Infant Mortality," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9978, The World Bank.
    10. Kibrom A. Abay & Leah E. M. Bevis & Christopher B. Barrett, 2021. "Measurement Error Mechanisms Matter: Agricultural Intensification with Farmer Misperceptions and Misreporting," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 103(2), pages 498-522, March.
    11. Gupta, Aashish, 2020. "Seasonal variation in infant mortality in India," SocArXiv x4rv7, Center for Open Science.
    12. Olutayo Adeyemi & Mariama Toure & Namukolo Covic & Mara Bold & Nicholas Nisbett & Derek Headey, 2022. "Understanding drivers of stunting reduction in Nigeria from 2003 to 2018: a regression analysis," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 14(4), pages 995-1011, August.
    13. Bevis, Leah & Kim, Kichan & Guerena, David, 2023. "Soil zinc deficiency and child stunting: Evidence from Nepal," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).

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