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Student Responses to the Changing Content of School Meals in India

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  • Farzana Afridi
  • Bidisha Barooah
  • Rohini Somanathan

Abstract

Can countries with binding budget constraints increase the benefits of school transfers through better program design? A cost-neutral change is used in the design of India’s school meal program to study this question. Municipal schools in Delhi switched from packaged snacks to cooked meals in 2003, with no change in payments to meal providers. Variation in the timing of this transition is used and child-level panel data to estimate a 3 percentage point rise in average monthly attendance in response to the new program. The effects are largest for early grades, morning school shifts and schools serving diverse menus.

Suggested Citation

  • Farzana Afridi & Bidisha Barooah & Rohini Somanathan, 2016. "Student Responses to the Changing Content of School Meals in India," Working Papers id:11427, eSocialSciences.
    • Handle: RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:11427
    Note: Institutional Papers
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Afridi, Farzana, 2010. "Child welfare programs and child nutrition: Evidence from a mandated school meal program in India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(2), pages 152-165, July.
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    5. Paul Schultz, T., 2004. "School subsidies for the poor: evaluating the Mexican Progresa poverty program," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(1), pages 199-250, June.
    6. Rajshri Jayaraman & Dora Simroth, 2015. "The Impact of School Lunches on Primary School Enrollment: Evidence from India's Midday Meal Scheme," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 117(4), pages 1176-1203, October.
    7. World Food Programme, 2013. "State of School Feeding Worldwide 2013," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 13536.
    8. Harold Alderman & Daniel O. Gilligan & Kim Lehrer, 2012. "The Impact of Food for Education Programs on School Participation in Northern Uganda," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 61(1), pages 187-218.
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    Cited by:

    1. Chandana Maitra & Vani Sethi & Sayeed Unisa & Sriram Shankar, 2019. "Household Food Insecurity and Maternal and Child Nutritional Status: Evidence from Maharashtra," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 65(S1), pages 63-101, November.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    cost-neutral change; India; budget constraints; school transfers; Municipal schools; Delhi; snacks; meal; child-level; grades; school shifts; serving;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D1 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior
    • E31 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Price Level; Inflation; Deflation
    • F01 - International Economics - - General - - - Global Outlook

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