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Wealthy, healthy, and wise: does money compensate for being born into difficult conditions?

Author

Listed:
  • James Manley

    (Department of Economics, Towson University)

  • Lia Fernald

    (School of Public Health, UC Berkeley)

  • Paul Gertler

    (Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley)

Abstract

Recent studies have linked transfers from Mexican conditional cash transfer program Oportunidades (formerly PROGRESA) to improvements in child development (Fernald, Gertler, and Neufeld 2008, 2009) but this work has been crit icized as failing to account for endogeneity of the transfers. We create an exogenous instrume nt for the amount of tran sfers and use it to test program and transfer effects. A pplying the new instrument confirms that improvements in child development are more linked to the transfers themselves than to other portions of the program, which involve medical checkups as well as educational sessions for mothers. We also find evidence that the program facilitates catch-up growth, a phenomenon of disputed importance in the health literature.

Suggested Citation

  • James Manley & Lia Fernald & Paul Gertler, 2012. "Wealthy, healthy, and wise: does money compensate for being born into difficult conditions?," Working Papers 2012-01, Towson University, Department of Economics, revised Feb 2012.
    • Handle: RePEc:tow:wpaper:2012-01
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    File URL: http://webapps.towson.edu/cbe/economics/workingpapers/2012-01.pdf
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Libertad González & Sofia Trommlerová, 2021. "Prenatal Transfers and Infant Health: Evidence from Spain," Working Papers 1261, Barcelona School of Economics.
    2. González, Libertad & Trommlerová, Sofia, 2022. "Cash transfers before pregnancy and infant health," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    3. Cooper, Kerris & Stewart, Kitty, 2020. "Does household income affect children’s outcomes? A systematic review of the evidence," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 107029, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Cooper, Kerris & Stewart, Kitty, 2017. "Does Money Affect Children’s Outcomes? An update," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 103494, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    5. Libertad González Luna & Sofia Trommlerová, 2021. "Prenatal transfers and infant health: Evidence from Spain," Economics Working Papers 1783, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
    6. Mark Fransham & Ruth Patrick & Aaron Reeves & Kitty Stewart, 2020. "Did the introduction of the benefit cap in Britain harm mental health? A natural experiment approach," CASE Papers /221, Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, LSE.
    7. Kerris Cooper & Kitty Stewart, 2017. "Does Money Affect Children's Outcomes? An update," CASE Papers /203, Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, LSE.
    8. Kerris Cooper & Kitty Stewart, 2021. "Does Household Income Affect children’s Outcomes? A Systematic Review of the Evidence," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 14(3), pages 981-1005, June.
    9. Reeves, Aaron Samuel & Fransham, Mark James & Stewart, Kitty Judith & Patrick, Ruth, 2020. "Did the introduction of the benefit cap in Britain harm mental health? A natural experiment approach," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 121527, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    10. Chen, Jiwei & Zhang, Zongli, 2024. "Family poverty and adolescents’ cognitive and noncognitive outcomes: Evidence from China," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    PROGRESA; Oportunidades; conditional cas h transfers; instrument al variables; child development; child health; Mexico.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • I38 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs

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