A mother's voice: Impacts of spousal communication training on child health investments

Martina Björkman Nyqvist (), Seema Jayachandran and Celine Zipfel
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Martina Björkman Nyqvist: Mistra Center for Sustainable Markets (Misum), Postal: Stockholm School of Economics, P.O. Box 6501, SE-113 83 Stockholm, Sweden

No 2023-13, Misum Working Paper Series from Stockholm School of Economics, Mistra Center for Sustainable Markets (Misum)

Abstract: Building on prior evidence that mothers often have a stronger preference for spending on children than fathers do, we use a randomized experiment to evaluate the impacts of a communication training program for mothers on child health in Uganda. The hypothesis is that the training will enable women to better convey their knowledge and preferences to their husbands and, thereby, boost investments in children’s health. We find that the program increases spousal discussion about the family’s health, nutrition, and finances. However, this does not increase overall adoption of health-promoting behaviors or improve child anthropometrics. One exception is that the communication training increases women’s and children’s intake of protein-rich foods as well as household spending on these foods.

Keywords: Spouse; Communication; Child health; Investments; Uganda (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I12 I15 J12 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 40 pages
Date: 2023-02-14
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev, nep-exp and nep-hea
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https://swopec.hhs.se/hamisu/papers/hamisu2023_013.1.pdf Full text (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: A mother’s voice: Impacts of spousal communication training on child health investments (2024)
Working Paper: A Mother’s Voice: Impacts of Spousal Communication Training on Child Health Investments (2023)
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