Health-related EEF seminar

Presenter: Matthias Rieger, associate professor at Erasmus University Rotterdam;

Title: "Child Growth Faltering, Compensatory Investments and Catch Up: Global Evidence from Natural Disasters"

Abstract: A substantial share of the world’s children under 5 suffer from stunted growth, that is, their height is too low for their age when compared to a WHO growth standard. Height growth in the first 1000 days of life can falter depending on health endowments, adverse shocks and investments. We study growth faltering and subsequent catch up of children exploiting earthquake events in utero in a large sample of Demographic and Health Surveys leveraging within community or mother variation in exposure. On average we document modest, adverse impacts on height-for-age z-scores. Average effects mask larger short-term impacts and subsequent catch-up growth. We study underlying mechanisms related to parental investments, local economic dynamics, and aid. We discuss our findings within the literature on child growth faltering and catch up.