IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wbk/wbrwps/3523.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Schools meals, educational achievement and school competition: evidence from a randomized evaluation

Author

Listed:
  • Vermeersch, Christel
  • Kremer, Michael

Abstract

This paper examines the effects of subsidized school meals on school participation, educational achievement, and school finance in a developing country setting. The paper uses data from a program that was implemented in 25 randomly chosen preschools in a pool of 50. Children's school participation was 30 percent higher in the treatment group than in the comparison group. The meals program led to higher curriculum test scores, but only in schools where the teacher was relatively experienced prior to the program. The school meals displaced teaching time and led to larger class sizes. Despite improved incentives, teacher absenteeism remained at a high level of 30 percent. Treatment schools raised their fees, and comparison schools close to treatment schools decreased their fees. Some of the price effects are due to a combination of capacity constraints and pupil transfers that would not happen if the school meals were offered in all schools. The intention-to-treat estimator of the effect of the randomized program incorporates those price effects, and therefore it should be considered a lower bound on the effect of generalized school meals. This insight on price effects generalizes to other randomized program evaluations.

Suggested Citation

  • Vermeersch, Christel & Kremer, Michael, 2005. "Schools meals, educational achievement and school competition: evidence from a randomized evaluation," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3523, The World Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:3523
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2005/03/06/000090341_20050306120657/Rendered/PDF/wps3523.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Quisumbing, Agnes R., 2003. "Food Aid and Child Nutrition in Rural Ethiopia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 31(7), pages 1309-1324, July.
    2. Kenneth I. Wolpin & Mark R. Rosenzweig, 2000. "Natural "Natural Experiments" in Economics," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 38(4), pages 827-874, December.
    3. Glewwe, Paul & Jocoby, Hanan & King, Elizabeth M., 1999. "Early childhood nutrition and academic achievement," FCND discussion papers 68, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    4. Jean Drèze & Geeta Gandhi Kingdon, 2001. "School Participation in Rural India," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 5(1), pages 1-24, February.
    5. Blau, David M & Robins, Philip K, 1988. "Child-Care Costs and Family Labor Supply," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 70(3), pages 374-381, August.
    6. Jere Behrman & Victor Lavy, "undated". "Child Health and Schooling Achievement: Association, Causality and Household Allocations," CARESS Working Papres 97-23, University of Pennsylvania Center for Analytic Research and Economics in the Social Sciences.
    7. Edward Miguel & Michael Kremer, 2001. "Worms: Education and Health Externalities in Kenya," NBER Working Papers 8481, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Harold Alderman & Jere Behrman & Victory Lavy & Rekha Menon, "undated". "Child Nutrition, Child Health, and School Enrollment: A Longitudinal Analysis," CARESS Working Papres 97-21, University of Pennsylvania Center for Analytic Research and Economics in the Social Sciences.
    9. Tan, Jee-Peng & Lane, Julia & Lassibille, Gerard, 1999. "Student Outcomes in Philippine Elementary Schools: An Evaluation of Four Experiments," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 13(3), pages 493-508, September.
    10. Glewwe, Paul & Kremer, Michael & Moulin, Sylvie & Zitzewitz, Eric, 2004. "Retrospective vs. prospective analyses of school inputs: the case of flip charts in Kenya," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(1), pages 251-268, June.
    11. Moock, Peter R. & Leslie, Joanne, 1986. "Childhood malnutrition and schooling in the Terai region of Nepal," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 33-52.
    12. Jamison, Dean T., 1986. "Child malnutrition and school performance in China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 299-309, March.
    13. Hanan G. Jacoby, 2002. "Is There an Intrahousehold "Flypaper Effect"? Evidence From a School Feeding Programme," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 112(476), pages 196-221, January.
    14. Behrman, Jere R. & Hoddinott, John, 2001. "An evaluation of the impact of PROGRESA on pre-school child height," FCND briefs 104, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    15. Glewwe, Paul & Jacoby, Hanan G, 1995. "An Economic Analysis of Delayed Primary School Enrollment in a Low Income Country: The Role of Early Childhood Nutrition," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 77(1), pages 156-169, February.
    16. Glewwe, Paul & Jacoby, Hanan G. & King, Elizabeth M., 2001. "Early childhood nutrition and academic achievement: a longitudinal analysis," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(3), pages 345-368, September.
    17. Gomes-Neto, Joao Batista & Hanushek, Eric A. & Leite, Raimundo Helio & Frota-Bezzera, Roberto Claudio, 1997. "Health and schooling: Evidence and policy implications for developing countries," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 16(3), pages 271-282, June.
    18. Ahmed, Akhter U. & del Ninno, Carlo, 2002. "The Food For Education program in Bangladesh," FCND discussion papers 138, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    19. Lokshin, Michael M. & Glinskaya, Elena & Garcia, Marito, 2000. "The effect of early childhood development programs on women's labor force participation and older children's schooling in Kenya," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2376, The World Bank.
    20. Janet Currie, 2001. "Early Childhood Education Programs," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 15(2), pages 213-238, Spring.
    21. Sharon K. Long, 1991. "Do the School Nutrition Programs Supplement Household Food Expenditures?," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 26(4), pages 654-678.
    22. Hanan G. Jacoby, 1997. "Self-Selection and the Redistributive Impact of In-Kind Transfers: An Econometric Analysis," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 32(2), pages 223-249.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Justine Burns & Malcolm Kewsell & Rebecca Thornton, 2009. "Evaluating the Impact of Health Programmes," SALDRU Working Papers 40, Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town.
    2. Gaurav Dhamija, 2018. "The Joint Determination of Later Life Health and Educational Outcomes by Early Life Conditions: A Multinomial Logit Analysis," Review of Market Integration, India Development Foundation, vol. 10(3), pages 197-227, December.
    3. Hongbin Li & Xianguo Yao & Junsen Zhang & Li-An Zhou, 2005. "Parental childcare and children's educational attainment: evidence from China," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(18), pages 2067-2076.
    4. Glewwe, Paul & Kremer, Michael, 2006. "Schools, Teachers, and Education Outcomes in Developing Countries," Handbook of the Economics of Education, in: Erik Hanushek & F. Welch (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Education, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 16, pages 945-1017, Elsevier.
    5. Behrman, Jere R. & Hoddinott, John, 2001. "An evaluation of the impact of PROGRESA on pre-school child height," FCND briefs 104, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    6. Aramide Kazeem & John M. Musalia, 2018. "The Implication of Early Childhood Malnutrition for Age of Entry into Primary School in Nigeria," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 11(4), pages 1337-1368, August.
    7. Kazianga, Harounan & de Walque, Damien & Alderman, Harold, 2009. "Educational and health impacts of two school feeding schemes : evidence from a randomized trial in rural Burkina Faso," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4976, The World Bank.
    8. Danielle Carusi Machado & Carine Milcent & Jacques Huguenin, 2013. "School absenteeism, work and health among Brazilian children: Full information versus limited information model," Economia, ANPEC - Associação Nacional dos Centros de Pós-Graduação em Economia [Brazilian Association of Graduate Programs in Economics], vol. 14(2), pages 46-60.
    9. repec:dau:papers:123456789/4935 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Thuan Quang Thai & Evangelos M. Falaris, 2010. "The Effect of Child Health on Schooling: Evidence from Rural Vietnam," Working Papers 10-04, University of Delaware, Department of Economics.
    11. Stephen Knowles & P. Dorian Owen, 1997. "Education and Health in an Effective‐Labour Empirical Growth Model," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 73(223), pages 314-328, December.
    12. Zakir Husain & Mousumi Dutta & Nidhi Chowdhary, 2014. "Is Health Wealth? Results of a Panel Data Analysis," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 117(1), pages 121-143, May.
    13. Susan Godlonton & Malcolm Keswell, 2005. "The Impact Of Health On Poverty: Evidence From The South African Integrated Family Survey," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 73(1), pages 133-148, March.
    14. Gustavo J. Bobonis & Edward Miguel & Charu Puri-Sharma, 2006. "Anemia and School Participation," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 41(4).
    15. Joseph, George & Hoo, Yi Rong & Moqueet, Nazia Sultana & Chellaraj, Gnanaraj, 2023. "Early-life exposure to unimproved sanitation and delayed school enrollment: Evidence from Bangladesh," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 32(C).
    16. Cortez, Maria Patricia A., 1999. "Nutrition and the cognitive ability of children: evidence from Egypt," ISU General Staff Papers 1999010108000013559, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    17. Meng, Xin & Qian, Nancy, 2006. "The Long Run Health and Economic Consequences of Famine on Survivors: Evidence from China’s Great Famine," IZA Discussion Papers 2471, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    18. Shahin Yaqub, 2002. "'Poor children grow into poor adults': harmful mechanisms or over-deterministic theory?," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 14(8), pages 1081-1093.
    19. Mayer-Foulkes, David, 2008. "The Human Development Trap in Mexico," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 36(5), pages 775-796, May.
    20. Glewwe, Paul, 2001. "Schools, Skills And Economic Development: Education Policies, Student Learning And Socioeconomic Outcomes In Developing Countries," Bulletins 12969, University of Minnesota, Economic Development Center.

    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:wbk:wbrwps:3523. 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: Roula I. Yazigi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dvewbus.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.