Worms at Work: Long-run Impacts of a Child Health Investment / Sarah Baird, Joan Hamory Hicks, Michael Kremer, Edward Miguel.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Baird, Sarah.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Hicks, Joan Hamory.

Kremer, Michael.

Miguel, Edward.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w21428.

NBER working paper series no. w21428

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Other Title:

Worms at Work

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2015.

Summary:

This study estimates long-run impacts of a child health investment, exploiting community-wide experimental variation in school-based deworming. The program increased labor supply among men and education among women, with accompanying shifts in labor market specialization. Ten years after deworming treatment, men who were eligible as boys stay enrolled for more years of primary school, work 17% more hours each week, spend more time in non-agricultural self-employment, are more likely to hold manufacturing jobs, and miss one fewer meal per week. Women who were in treatment schools as girls are approximately one quarter more likely to have attended secondary school, halving the gender gap. They reallocate time from traditional agriculture into cash crops and non-agricultural self-employment. We estimate a conservative annualized financial internal rate of return to deworming of 32%, and show that mass deworming may generate more in future government revenue than it costs in subsidies.

Notes:

Print version record

July 2015.