Nutritional Benefits of Fostering: Evidence from Longitudinal Data in South Africa

Christelle Dumas, Elsa Gautrain () and Adrien Gosselin-Pali
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Christelle Dumas: University of Fribourg, Switzerland
Elsa Gautrain: University of Fribourg, Switzerland, https://sites.google.com/view/elsagautrain
Adrien Gosselin-Pali: Université Clermont Auvergne

No 542, FSES Working Papers from Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences, University of Freiburg/Fribourg Switzerland

Abstract: In sub-Saharan Africa, child fostering—a widespread practice in which a child moves out of the household of her biological parents—can have significant implications for a child’s overall well-being. Using longitudinal data from South Africa that includes individual tracking, we employ double machine learning techniques to evaluate the impact of fostering on nutrition, addressing biases related to selection into treatment and endogenous attrition, two common challenges in the literature. Our findings reveal that fostering reduces the probability of being stunted by 6.8 percentage points, corresponding to a 37 percent reduction compared to the mean prevalence. This improvement appears to be driven by foster children relocating to smaller, rural households, often including retired individuals, typically grandparents, who receive a pension. Furthermore, we find that it not only enhances the nutritional status of foster children but also benefits the nutrition of other children from sending households, suggesting that fostering can be mutually beneficial for both groups.

Keywords: Child Fostering; Nutrition; Machine Learning; South Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C14 I15 J12 J13 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 44 pages
Date: 2025-07-01
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