Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management, ECARES and Centre Emile Bernheim, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium.
Econ Hum Biol. 2012 Jul;10(3):221-31. doi: 10.1016/j.ehb.2011.09.007. Epub 2011 Oct 11.
The paper investigates the effect of child undernutrition on the risk of mortality in Burundi. Using anthropometric data from a longitudinal survey (1998-2007) we find that undernourished children, measured by the height-for-age z-scores (HAZ) in 1998 had a higher probability to die during subsequent years. In order to address the problem of omitted variables correlated with both nutritional status and the risk of mortality, we use the length of exposure to civil war prior to 1998 as a source of exogenous variation in a child's nutritional status. Children exposed to civil war in their area of residence have worse nutritional status. The results indicate that one year of exposure translates into a 0.15 decrease in the HAZ, resulting in a 10% increase in the probability to die. For boys, we find a 0.34 decrease in HAZ per year of exposure, resulting in 25% increase in the probability to die. For girls, the results are statistically not significant at the usual thresholds. We show the robustness of our results and we derive policy conclusion for a nutrition intervention in times of conflict.
本文研究了儿童营养不良对布隆迪死亡率风险的影响。利用一项纵向调查（1998-2007 年）中的人体测量数据，我们发现，1998 年身高-年龄 Z 分数（HAZ）测量的营养不良儿童在随后几年死亡的可能性更高。为了解决与营养状况和死亡率风险都相关的遗漏变量问题，我们利用 1998 年之前儿童在居住地遭受内战的时间长度作为其营养状况的外生变化来源。暴露于其居住地内战中的儿童营养状况较差。结果表明，一年的暴露导致 HAZ 降低 0.15，死亡概率增加 10%。对于男孩，我们发现每年暴露导致 HAZ 降低 0.34，死亡概率增加 25%。对于女孩，结果在通常的阈值下没有统计学意义。我们证明了我们的结果的稳健性，并为冲突时期的营养干预措施得出了政策结论。
