Petter Lundborg
Professor
Long-Term Effects of Childhood Nutrition: Evidence from a School Lunch Reform
Författare
Summary, in English
We study the long-term impact of a policy-driven change in childhood nutrition. For this purpose, we evaluate a program that rolled out nutritious school lunches free of charge to all pupils in Swedish primary schools between 1959 and 1969. We estimate the impact of the program on children's economic, educational, and health outcomes throughout life. Our results show that the school lunch program generated substantial long-term benefits, where pupils exposed to the program during their entire primary school period have 3% higher lifetime income. The effect was greater for pupils that were exposed at earlier ages and for pupils from poor households, suggesting that the program reduced socioeconomic inequalities in adulthood. Exposure to the program also had substantial effects on educational attainment and health, which can explain a large part of the effect of the program on lifetime income.
Avdelning/ar
- Nationalekonomiska institutionen
- Centrum för ekonomisk demografi
Publiceringsår
2022
Språk
Engelska
Sidor
876-908
Publikation/Tidskrift/Serie
Review of Economic Studies
Volym
89
Issue
2
Dokumenttyp
Artikel i tidskrift
Förlag
Oxford University Press
Ämne
- Economics
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Övrigt
- ISSN: 0034-6527