Nutritional Gains from Extended Exposure to a Large-scale Nutrition Programme

This paper estimates the returns to differential programme exposure in the context of a large-scale nutritional programme. It addresses this question using information available only on programme participants. To that end, the authors develop a methodology that circumvents this data hurdle and estimate returns to differential lengths of exposure using administrative data. Such data are generally collected as a by-product of the monitoring process of programme implementation but are rarely exploited to assess the effectiveness of the programme. The analysis finds that the returns to exposure are positive: communities exposed for an additional 1 (or 2) years of display on average lower malnutrition rates of around 7--9 percentage points. Moreover, the differential returns are decreasing over time, although they do not dissipate to zero. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that the returns to the programme reflect learning effects from the intervention. Copyright 2011 The author 2011. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Centre for the Study of African Economies. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com, Oxford University Press.