Publication: The Long-run Impact of Orphanhood
Date
2007-09
ISSN
Published
2007-09
Author(s)
Abstract
This paper presents unique evidence that
orphanhood matters in the long run for health and education
outcomes, in a region of Northwestern Tanzania. The paper
studies a sample of 718 non-orphaned children surveyed in
1991-94, who were traced and re-interviewed as adults in
2004. A large proportion, 19 percent, lost one or more
parents before the age of 15 in this period, allowing the
authors to assess the permanent health and education impacts
of orphanhood. The analysis controls for a wide range of
child and adult characteristics before orphanhood, as well
as community fixed effects. The findings show that maternal
orphanhood has a permanent adverse impact of 2 cm of final
height attainment and one year of educational attainment.
Expressing welfare in terms of consumption expenditure, the
result is a gap of 8.5 percent compared with similar
children whose mother survived till at least their 15th birthday.
Citation
“Beegle, Kathleen; De Weerdt, Joachim; Dercon, Stefan. 2007. The Long-run Impact of Orphanhood. Policy Research Working Paper; No. 4353. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://openknowledge.worldbank.org/entities/publication/59f28a1d-64d2-5d49-8c1a-179e0ec79505 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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