Essays on risk, nutrition and poverty dynamics

Thesis

This collection of essays explores questions on risk, poverty dynamics and early child development. The first essay analyses issues of cognitive development in early childhood. An extensive literature documents linkages between nutrition and cognition, but few studies show correlations to be causal. Building on Glewwe et al (2001) and Alderman et al (2006), we re-examine this relationship and find a negative cognitive effect of early nutritional disinvestments among a sample of Peruvian pre-schooling siblings.

The second essay examines nutritional catch-up growth among poor Ethiopian children and the role household wealth in this process. We find that nutritional catch-up patterns vary across socioeconomic groups: average catch-up growth in height-for-age is near perfect among children in better-off households. However, for children above 5 years of age, household wealth no longer affects height velocity. Our findings suggest that nutritional remediation is effective early on in life, but that this window of opportunity might already be closed by the age of five.

The third essay contributes to the literature on poverty traps and thresholds. In spite of their popularity, little empirical evidence supports their existence. Studies testing poverty traps often are restrictive in their methodology (e.g. Lokshin and Ravallion, 2004) or fail to provide causal estimates (Lybbert et al, 2004). This essay tests and finds evidence of multiple equilibria in income dynamics in rural India using a 30-year long panel. Simulations suggest the presence of two equilibria: a stable high-income equilibrium and a low-level unstable saddle point. To the best of our knowledge, the paper provides first evidence of multiple equilibria in income dynamics.

Authors: Outes Leon, IW

• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English