Human Capital Development and Parental Investment in India

Orazio Attanasio, Costas Meghir and Emily Nix
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Orazio Attanasio: University College London, IFS, NBER
Emily Nix: Dept. of Economics, Yale University

No 2026, Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers from Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University

Abstract: In this paper we estimate production functions for cognition and health throughout four stages of childhood from 5-15 years of age using two cohorts of children drawn from the Young Lives Survey for India. The inputs into the production function include parental background, prior child cognition and health and child investments. We allow investments to be endogenous and they depend on local prices and household income, as well as on the exogenous determinants of cognition and health. We find that investments are very important determinants of child cognition and of health at an earlier age. We also find that inputs are complementary and crucially that health is very important in determining cognition. Our paper contributes in understanding how early health outcomes are important in child development.

Keywords: Early childhood development; Human capital; India; Nonlinear factor models; Young lives survey; Health; Cognition (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I14 I15 I25 I32 J13 J24 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 71 pages
Date: 2015-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem and nep-dev
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: Human Capital Development and Parental Investment in India (2019)
Working Paper: Human Capital Development and Parental Investment in India (2017)
Working Paper: Human Capital Development and Parental Investment in India (2017)
Working Paper: Human Capital Development and Parental Investment in India (2015)
Working Paper: Human Capital Development and Parental Investment in India (2015)
Working Paper: Human Capital Development and Parental Investment in India (2015)
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