IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/0416.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

An Economic Analysis of the Diet, Growth, and Health of Young Children in the United States

Author

Listed:
  • Dov Chernichovsky
  • Douglas Coate

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent to which family income and education are obstacles to the provision of adequate diets for young children in the United States. An examination of the Health and Nutrition Examination Survey reveals the following: 1. Average nutrient intakes of young children are well above recommended dietary standards, with the exception of iron. 2. Average nutrient intakes for children in households of lower economic status are very similar to intakes of children in households of higher economic status. Rates of children's growth are also similar in these households. 3. Family income and education of the household head have statistically significant but very small positive effects on the nutrient intake levels of young children. 4. There are substantial effects of protein intakes on children's height and head growth, even though protein is consumed in excess of dietary standards. This finding and the apparent correlation between children's growth and their intellectual development brings to question the adequacy of present protein standards. Could American mothers, who provide very high protein diets for their children in households at all levels of socioeconomic status know more about what constitutes an adequate diet for their children than the experts do?

Suggested Citation

  • Dov Chernichovsky & Douglas Coate, 1979. "An Economic Analysis of the Diet, Growth, and Health of Young Children in the United States," NBER Working Papers 0416, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:0416
    Note: EH
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w0416.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dov Chernichovsky & Douglas Coate, 1977. "The Choice of Diet for Young Children and Its Relation to Children's Growth," NBER Working Papers 0219, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Robert T. Michael, 1972. "The Effect of Education on Efficiency in Consumption," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number mich72-1, January.
    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. Rosenzweig, Mark R. & Paul Schultz, T., 1987. "Fertility and investments in human capital : Estimates of the consequence of imperfect fertility control in Malaysia," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 36(1-2), pages 163-184.
    2. Mark R. Rosenzweig & T. Paul Schultz, 1982. "The Behavior of Mothers as Inputs to Child Health: The Determinants of Birth Weight, Gestation, and Rate of Fetal Growth," NBER Chapters, in: Economic Aspects of Health, pages 53-92, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Chernichovsky, Dov & Zangwill, Linda, 1988. "Microeconomic theory of the household and nutrition programs," Policy Research Working Paper Series 82, The World Bank.
    4. Komlos, John & Meermann, Lukas, 2004. "The Introduction of Anthropometrics into Development and Labor Economics," Discussion Papers in Economics 381, University of Munich, Department of Economics.

    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. Rodolfo Nayga, 2001. "Effect of Schooling on Obesity: Is Health Knowledge a Moderating Factor?," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(2), pages 129-137.
    2. Mark R. Rosenzweig & Kenneth I. Wolpin, 1988. "Heterogeneity, Intrafamily Distribution, and Child Health," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 23(4), pages 437-461.
    3. Richardson, Robert A. & Havlicek, Joseph, Jr., 1974. "On Analysis Of Seasonal Household Waste Generation," Southern Journal of Agricultural Economics, Southern Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 6(2), pages 1-13, December.
    4. Greg J. Duncan & Kenneth T. H. Lee & Maria Rosales-Rueda & Ariel Kalil, 2018. "Maternal Age and Child Development," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 55(6), pages 2229-2255, December.
    5. repec:eee:labchp:v:1:y:1986:i:c:p:273-304 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Philippe Cazenave, 1976. "Pour une nouvelle analyse économique de la demande de formation," Revue Économique, Programme National Persée, vol. 27(1), pages 54-84.
    7. Jiang, Wei & Lu, Yi & Xie, Huihua, 2020. "Education and mental health: Evidence and mechanisms," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 180(C), pages 407-437.
    8. Llavador, Humberto & Roemer, John E. & Silvestre, Joaquim, 2011. "“A dynamic analysis of human welfare in a warming planet”," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(11), pages 1607-1620.
    9. Cheng, Zhiming, 2021. "Education and consumption: Evidence from migrants in Chinese cities," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 206-215.
    10. Mehrani , Taha & Ghasemimand , Fatemeh & Salem , Ali Asghar, 2019. "The Effect of Socioeconomic Variables on Provincial Bread Demand Using QAIDS Model," Journal of Money and Economy, Monetary and Banking Research Institute, Central Bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran, vol. 14(4), pages 525-554, October.
    11. M.A. Marais, 1993. "The Consumption Benefits of Education," Economics Discussion / Working Papers 93-06, The University of Western Australia, Department of Economics.
    12. M.A. Marais, 1992. "The Funding of Tertiary Education in New Zealand," Economics Discussion / Working Papers 92-26, The University of Western Australia, Department of Economics.
    13. M.A. Marais, 1993. "The Theoretical Case for a Voucher Scheme in South Africa," Economics Discussion / Working Papers 93-01, The University of Western Australia, Department of Economics.
    14. Inmaculada García & José Alberto Molina, 1999. "Labor supply, child care, and welfare in Spanish households," International Advances in Economic Research, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 5(4), pages 430-445, November.
    15. Kertesi, Gábor & Kézdi, Gábor & Hajdu, Tamás, 2022. "Idő és pénz a gyermeknevelésben Magyarországon, 1993-2010 [Time and money in raising children in Hungary, 1993-2010]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(11), pages 1255-1297.
    16. Lewis C. Solmon, 1975. "The Relation between Schooling and Savings Behavior: An Example of the Indirect Effects of Education," NBER Chapters, in: Education, Income, and Human Behavior, pages 253-294, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Llavador, Humberto & Roemer, John E. & Silvestre, Joaquim, 2011. "“A dynamic analysis of human welfare in a warming planet”," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(11), pages 1607-1620.
    18. William R. Johnson, 1978. "Substitution in Household Production and the Efficiency of in-Kind Transfers," Public Finance Review, , vol. 6(2), pages 204-210, April.
    19. Grossman, Michael, 2004. "The demand for health, 30 years later: a very personal retrospective and prospective reflection," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 629-636, July.
    20. Philip Trostel & Ian Walker, 2006. "Education and Work," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(4), pages 377-399.
    21. Carmen Aina & Daniela Sonedda, 2022. "Sooner or later? The impact of child education on household consumption," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 63(4), pages 2071-2099, October.

    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:nbr:nberwo:0416. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.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.