Paper
Credit Programs for the Poor and the Health Status of Children in Rural Bangladesh
Do credit services have positive effects on the health of children?
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This paper examines the effect of credit programs on child health. The health measures used for this study, which was done by the gender of the child, are:
- Arm circumference;
- Body mass index;
- Height for age.
The main findings of the study are:
- Credit given to women has a large and statistically significant impact on two out of three of the above mentioned measures of the health of both boy and girl children;
- Credit provided to men has no statistically significant impact on the health of children;
- A 10 percent increase in the credit provided to women increases the arm circumference of their daughters by 6.3 percent. This is twice the increase that is expected from a similar proportionate increase in credit provided to men;
- Credit given to women has a significant but smaller effect on the arm circumference of sons;
- Credit given to women has a large, positive and statistically apparent impact on the height for age of both boys and girls.
