Elsevier

Economics & Human Biology

Volume 22, September 2016, Pages 65-81
Economics & Human Biology

Early life height and weight production functions with endogenous energy and protein inputs

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ehb.2016.03.002Get rights and content
Under a Creative Commons license
open access

Highlights

  • We estimate height and weight production functions for infants.

  • We focus on the role of energy and protein intake.

  • We use IV to control for endogeneity and estimate a number of models.

  • The results indicate that protein play an important role in height and weight change.

Abstract

We examine effects of protein and energy intakes on height and weight growth for children between 6 and 24 months old in Guatemala and the Philippines. Using instrumental variables to control for endogeneity and estimating multiple specifications, we find that protein intake plays an important and positive role in height and weight growth in the 6–24 month period. Energy from other macronutrients, however, does not have a robust relation with these two anthropometric measures. Our estimates indicate that in contexts with substantial child undernutrition, increases in protein-rich food intake in the first 24 months can have important growth effects, which previous studies indicate are related significantly to a range of outcomes over the life cycle.

JEL classification

I12
O15
C13

Keywords

Nutrition
Early childhood
Endogeneity of inputs
Growth
Proteins

Cited by (0)

1

The authors thank reviewers on previous versions for useful comments and Grand Challenges Canada (Grant 0072-03), Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (Global Health Grant OPP1032713), and the Eunice Shriver Kennedy National Institute of Child Health and Development (Grant R01 HD070993) for financial support. The funders have no involvement in any part of the research project.