[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-113199-en":3,"doc-seo-113199-105":31,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":92},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":20,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":21,"is_downloadable":21,"audit_status":21,"page_count":22,"language":23,"language_code":24,"site_id":25,"html_lang":24,"table_of_contents":26,"faqs":27,"seo_title":28,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":29,"read_time":30},113199,549758252649,"Ivy","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/8000253669c5317157?_k=1778319167496531819",7,"Healthcare","Food Inflation and Child Health","Malnutrition in early life leaves lasting impacts on health, and high food inflation—an often neglected driver of malnutrition and hidden hunger—can intensify these risks, especially in developing countries. Using Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey data matched to local monthly food prices, the study tracks exposure during pregnancy and infancy. A one-percentage-point rise in month-to-month food inflation while in utero increases under-five stunting risk by 0.95%. Effects vary by exposure month, and results remain robust to key biases and alternative specifications.","Pub lic Disclosure Authorized Pub lic Disclosure Authorized  \nThe World Bank Economic Review, 36(3), 2022, 757–773  \n[https://doi.org10.1093/wber/lhac009](https://doi.org10.1093/wber/lhac009)  \nArticle  \nFood Inflation and Child Health  \nAndinet Woldemichael , Daniel Kidane, and Abebe Shimeles Abstract  \nMalnutrition is one of the most important early life shocks that have lasting effects on health. An often neglected cause of malnutrition and hidden hunger is high food inflation, particularly in developing countries. This study uses the Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey data, matching each child’s early life age in months from the time of conception with the corresponding local monthly food price data to examine the medium-term and long-term impacts of exposure to food inflation during the critical early life window—pregnancy and infancy—on child health. Exposure to one percentage point higher month-to-month food inflation while in utero increases the risk of under-five stunting by 0.95 percent. The impacts are heterogeneous depending on the month of exposure, highlighting the complicated biological mechanisms through which malnutrition during early life affects human growth. The results are robust to various empircal specifications and potential biases arising from survivor sample selection and age misreporting.  \nJEL classification: D13, E31, I10, I15  \nKeywords: in utero, height, stunting, macroeconomic instability, malnutrition, low-income, Africa  \n1. Introduction  \nShocks during pregnancy and early childhood—the first 1,000 days after conception—have lasting consequences on health, educational and cognitive achievements, labor market outcomes, and social behavior (Case and Paxson 2010; Currie and Almond 2011) . One of the most critical early life shocks in developing countries is malnutrition. It is detrimental to healthy brain development, physical stature, and the immune system and is linked to the onset of chronic diseases during adult life (Barker 1995; Barker and Clark 1997; Victora et al. 2008; Ford et al. 2018) . More importantly, the effects of malnutrition during early life are the most difficult to reverse through ex post remediation (Currie and Almond 2011) . Using a rich dataset from Ethiopia, this paper investigates how exposure to malnutrition caused by food inflation, while in utero and during infancy, affects under-five stunting.  \nThe impacts of severe nutrition shocks such as famine and drought are widely recognized in the literature and in policy spheres, and responses through, for instance, emergency food aid, are relatively prompt. However, the channels through which exposure to high food inflation impacts child health are not well  \nAndinet Woldemichael (corresponding author) is a principal research economist in the Development Research Department at African Development Bank, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire; his email address is [a.woldemichael@afdb.org. Daniel Kidane](a.woldemichael@afdb.org. Daniel Kidane) is an economist at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Bethesda, MD, USA; his email address [is dakidane@gmail.com](is dakidane@gmail.com); Abebe Shimeles is a director of research at the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) Nairobi, Kenya; his email address [is abebe.shimeles@aercafrica.org. The authors wish to thank Professor Eric Edmonds and three anonymous](is abebe.shimeles@aercafrica.org. The authors wish to thank Professor Eric Edmonds and three anonymous) reviewers for their extensive comments and suggestions, which helped improve the paper considerably. A supplementary online appendix is available with this article at The World Bank Economic Review website.  \n© The Author(s) 2022 . Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / THE WORLD BANK.  \nAll rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: [journals.permissions@oup.com](journals.permissions@oup.com)  \nDownloaded from [https://academic.oup.com/wber/ar","cbCaii2spQ53mmSS","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaii2spQ53mmSS","pdf",603416,4,1,17,"English","en",105,"# Introduction\n## Early life shocks and malnutrition\n## Why food inflation matters for child health\n## Study design and outcome measure\n## Data sources and empirical strategy","[{\"question\":\"What relationship does the study examine between food inflation and child health?\",\"answer\":\"It investigates how exposure to food inflation during pregnancy and infancy affects under-five stunting as an indicator of child health impaired growth.\"},{\"question\":\"How is exposure to food inflation measured in the analysis?\",\"answer\":\"Each child’s early-life age in months from conception is matched to corresponding local monthly food price data to compute timing-specific exposure.\"},{\"question\":\"What is the estimated effect of higher food inflation while in utero?\",\"answer\":\"Exposure to a one-percentage-point higher month-to-month food inflation while in utero increases the risk of under-five stunting by 0.95%.\"}]","Food Inflation and Child Health | 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