Religion and Health in Early Childhood: Evidence from the Indian Subcontinent

Elizabeth Brainerd and Nidhiya Menon

No 65, Working Papers from Brandeis University, Department of Economics and International Business School

Abstract: This paper studies early childhood health in India, Bangladesh and Nepal, focusing on inequalities in anthropometric outcomes by religious adherence. India and Nepal have Hindu majorities, while Bangladesh is predominantly Muslim. Results confirm a relative Muslim advantage for children less than 12 months of age in height-for-age and weight-for-age z scores primarily in India, possibly reflecting better nutritional intake from a non-vegetarian diet and the positive health endowment of Muslim women who tend to be taller than Hindu women. However this advantage disappears beyond 12 months of age, at which point Hindu children in all three countries are found to have significantly better anthropometric outcomes than Muslim children. We report tests that rule out mortality selection and undertake falsification and robustness exercises to affirm these findings.

Keywords: Child Health; Religion; Hindu; Muslim; India; Bangladesh; Nepal (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I12 O12 Z12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 53 pages
Date: 2013-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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http://www.brandeis.edu/economics/RePEc/brd/doc/Brandeis_WP65.pdf First version, 2013 (application/pdf)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:brd:wpaper:65

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