TY - JOUR
T1 - Stunting and selection effects of famine
T2 - A case study of the Great Chinese Famine
AU - Gørgens, Tue
AU - Meng, Xin
AU - Vaithianathan, Rhema
PY - 2012/1
Y1 - 2012/1
N2 - Many developing countries experience famine. If survival is related to height, the increasingly common practice of using height as a measure of well-being may be misleading. We devise a novel method for disentangling the stunting from the selection effects of famine. Using data from the 1959-1961 Great Chinese Famine, we find that taller children were more likely to survive the famine. Controlling for selection, we estimate that children under the age of five who survived the famine grew up to be 1 to 2. cm shorter. Our results suggest that if a country experiences a shock such as famine, average height is potentially a biased measure of economic conditions during childhood.
AB - Many developing countries experience famine. If survival is related to height, the increasingly common practice of using height as a measure of well-being may be misleading. We devise a novel method for disentangling the stunting from the selection effects of famine. Using data from the 1959-1961 Great Chinese Famine, we find that taller children were more likely to survive the famine. Controlling for selection, we estimate that children under the age of five who survived the famine grew up to be 1 to 2. cm shorter. Our results suggest that if a country experiences a shock such as famine, average height is potentially a biased measure of economic conditions during childhood.
KW - China
KW - Famine
KW - Height
KW - Panel data
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=80054697578&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2010.12.005
DO - 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2010.12.005
M3 - Article
SN - 0304-3878
VL - 97
SP - 99
EP - 111
JO - Journal of Development Economics
JF - Journal of Development Economics
IS - 1
ER -