No Place like Home: Long-Run Impacts of Early Child Health and Family Planning on Economic and Migration Outcomes

Tania Barham , University of Colorado Boulder
Randall Kuhn, University of California, Los Angeles
Patrick Turner, University of Notre Dame

Early childhood health and nutrition programs are believed to improve adult living standards through the effect of improved human capital on labor market opportunities. We take advantage of a quasi-randomly placed Maternal and Child Health and Family Planning program in Bangladesh, to examine program effects on economic and migration outcomes 35 years after program start. Program interventions rolled out between 1977–1988 starting with family planning and maternal health, and introducing key child health interventions in 1982. Treated men born when child health interventions were available work in more skilled jobs and are more entrepreneurial, but surprisingly, l earnings are similar to the comparison group. This is in driven in part by lower migration rates to urban areas. Women work more in paid agriculture activities and have more personal savings and credit. However, men born before the child health interventions were available earned less and migrating less to international destinations.

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 Presented in Session 173. Long-Term Effects of Early-Life Circumstances