Worms at Work: Long-run Impacts of a Child Health Investment

Sarah Baird, Joan Hamory Hicks, Michael Kremer and Edward Miguel

The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2016, vol. 131, issue 4, 1637-1680

Abstract: This study estimates long-run impacts of a child health investment, exploitingcommunity-wide experimental variation in school-based deworming. The programincreased labor supply among men and education among women, with accompanyingshifts in labor market specialization. Ten years after deworming treatment, menwho were eligible as boys stay enrolled for more years of primary school, work17% more hours each week, spend more time in nonagricultural self-employment,are more likely to hold manufacturing jobs, and miss one fewer meal per week.Women who were in treatment schools as girls are approximately one quarter morelikely to have attended secondary school, halving the gender gap. Theyreallocate time from traditional agriculture into cash crops and nonagriculturalself-employment. We estimate a conservative annualized financial internal rateof return to deworming of 32%, and show that mass deworming may generate more infuture government revenue than it costs in subsidies.

Date: 2016
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Working Paper: Worms at work: Long-run impacts of a child health investment (2015)
Working Paper: Worms at work: Long-run impacts of a child health investment (2015)
Working Paper: Worms at Work: Long-run Impacts of a Child Health Investment (2015)
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