Nighttime light intensity and child health outcomes in Bangladesh
Mohammad Rafiqul Islam,
Masud Alam (),
Munshi Naser İbne Afzal and
Sakila Alam
Additional contact information
Mohammad Rafiqul Islam: Shahjalal University of Science and Technology
Masud Alam: Shahjalal University of Science and Technology
Munshi Naser İbne Afzal: Shahjalal University of Science and Technology
Sakila Alam: University of Dhaka
SN Business & Economics, 2023, vol. 3, issue 9, 1-33
Abstract:
Abstract This paper explores the effect of urbanization on child health outcomes in Bangladesh. We use nighttime light intensity as a measure of urbanization and find that the higher intensity of nighttime light, the higher the degree of urbanization, which positively affects child health outcomes. We apply a novel methodology that combines the non-parametric and panel regression approach with the Gradient Boosting Machine that originates from machine learning algorithms. Our estimates suggest that one standard deviation increase in nighttime light intensity is associated with a 1.52 rise in Z-score of weight for age. The maximum increase of weight for height and height for age score range from 5.35 to 7.18 units. We perform several robustness tests, including a wide-ranging set of controls in generalized additive models, and find robust positive relationship holds. Our findings make several contributions: first, we rationalize our empirical findings in a utility and hybrid production function showing that urbanization's marginal effect on children's nutritional outcomes is strictly positive. Second, the relationship is nonlinear and U-shaped, where low and higher light intensity leads to poorer child health outcomes, with increases being observed to be positive at all times and along the trend line. Finally, our findings are closely linked to the effective policies in reducing children's malnutrition in low- and middle-income countries. We suggest that policies favoring small towns are more effective in improving child health outcomes than expanding megacities.
Keywords: Additive model; Bangladesh; Child nutritional outcomes; Gradient boosting machine; Urbanization; Nighttime light intensity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C51 I15 O18 R11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:
Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s43546-023-00556-8 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:snbeco:v:3:y:2023:i:9:d:10.1007_s43546-023-00556-8
Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.springer.com/journal/43546
DOI: 10.1007/s43546-023-00556-8
Access Statistics for this article
SN Business & Economics is currently edited by Gino D'Oca
More articles in SN Business & Economics from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().