Early Stimulation and Nutrition: The Impacts of a Scalable Intervention

Attanasio, Orazio; Baker-Henningham, Helen; Bernal, Raquel; Meghir, Costas; Pineda, Diana; Rubio-Codina, Marta

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Early Stimulation and Nutrition: The Impacts of a Scalable Intervention

NBER Working Paper No. w25059

59 Pages Posted: 17 Sep 2018 Last revised: 19 Aug 2022

See all articles by Orazio Attanasio

Orazio Attanasio

Dept of Economics Yale University; Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS); University College London - Department of Economics; Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR); National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Helen Baker-Henningham

Bangor University - Bangor University

Raquel Bernal

Universidad de los Andes, Colombia - Department of Economics

Costas Meghir

Yale University; Yale University - Cowles Foundation; Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS); National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR); IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Diana Pineda

Fundación Éxito

Marta Rubio-Codina

Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)

There are 3 versions of this paper

Date Written: September 2018

Abstract

Early Childhood Development is becoming the focus of policy worldwide. However, the evidence on the effectiveness of scalable models is scant, particularly when it comes to infants in developing countries. In this paper we describe and evaluate with a cluster-RCT an intervention designed to improve the quality of child stimulation within the context of an existing parenting program in Colombia, known as FAMI. The intervention improved children’s development by 0.16 of a standard deviation (SD) and children’s nutritional status, as reflected in a reduction of 5.8 percentage points of children whose height-for-age is below - 1 SD.

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Attanasio, Orazio and Baker-Henningham, Helen and Bernal, Raquel and Meghir, Costas and Pineda, Diana and Rubio-Codina, Marta, Early Stimulation and Nutrition: The Impacts of a Scalable Intervention (September 2018). NBER Working Paper No. w25059, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3250605