Despite significant economic growth, child development outcomes in India remain poor. Using a large-scale experiment in which randomly-selected mothers receive cash transfers for the first two years of their child’s life, we examine the relationship between income and child development in the Indian state of Jharkhand. Treated mothers and children experienced large increases in nutritional intake, and an index of motor and cognitive skills improved by 0.12SD. However, child anthropometric indicators improved only in areas with low rates of open defecation. These results suggest that poor sanitation is a key explanatory factor for the poor translation of increases in income into child growth in India.


This talk is presented by the Economic Development Seminar, sponsored in part by the Department of Economics through a generous gift given by Jay and Beth Rakow.