Child stature, maternal education, and early childhood development in Nigeria.

ABSTRACT: Data from the 2016-17 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey from Nigeria are used to study the relationship between child stature, mother's years of education, and indicators of early childhood development (ECD). The relationships are contrasted between two empirical approaches: the conventional approach whereby control variables are selected in an ad-hoc manner, and the double machine-learning (DML) approach that employs data-driven methods to select controls from a much wider set of variables and thus reducing potential omitted variable bias. Overall, the analysis confirms that maternal education and the incidence of chronic malnutrition have a significant direct effect on measures of early childhood development. The point estimates based on the ad-hoc specification tend to be larger in abso

SUBMITTER: Skoufias E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8700053 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature