Crop Diversification and Child Health: Empirical Evidence From Tanzania

Stefania Lovo and Marcella Veronesi

Ecological Economics, 2019, vol. 158, issue C, 168-179

Abstract: Malnutrition is recognized as a major issue among low-income households in developing countries with long-term implications for economic development. Recently, crop diversification has been considered as a strategy to improve nutrition and health. However, there is no systematic empirical evidence on the role played by crop diversification in improving human health. We use three waves of the Tanzania National Panel Survey to test the effect of crop diversification on child health. We implement two instrumental variable approaches, and perform several robustness checks to address potential endogeneity concerns. We find a positive but small effect of an increase in crop diversification on child height-for-age z-score, through greater dietary diversity. The effect is larger for subsistence households and children living in households with limited market access.

Keywords: Child Health; Crop Diversification; Dietary Diversity; Nutrition; Food Security; Tanzania (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I12 I15 O12 Q12 Q18 Q54 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (23)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Crop diversification and child health: Empirical evidence from Tanzania (2015)
Working Paper: Crop Diversification and Child Health: Empirical Evidence From Tanzania (2014)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:158:y:2019:i:c:p:168-179

DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2019.01.005

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