Does money matter for child nutrition? Exploration of a preschool nutrition program in rural South-Central China

Abstract

ObjectivesThe aim of this study was to examine the relationship between poverty and children's nutritional outcomes. MethodsDrawing on a 2018 survey of the preschool nutrition program conducted in the Xiangxi Autonomous Prefecture, Hunan Province, China, we applied propensity score matching to estimate the average treatment effects on the treated children. ResultsThe most striking result was that although poverty is often used as predictive of poor childhood nutrition, this effect was only significant for weight-for-age z-score and height-for-age z-score, but not for other nutritional indicators, cognition, or social emotional indexes. The results varied using different measures of poverty. The weak linkage between poverty and children's nutritional outcomes was confirmed by a series of robustness checks by changing the covariates for matching, adopting other matching methods, using bootstrapping standard errors, and building on machine learning tools. ConclusionsA single tool of small money transfer would have limited effects, but considerable income increases that lift the poor out of poverty are important for the poor. Additionally, a mixed tool of financial support and nutritional knowledge may lead to better outcomes, especially for those living above the poverty line.