早期健康投入是否有助于儿童长期认知能力提升?

Can Early-life Health Input Boost Children’s Long-run Cognitive Ability?

本文研究了胚胎和婴儿时期健康投入如何影响儿童长期认知能力发展。利用CFPS的调查数据,本文发现在胚胎和婴儿时期接受更多健康资源的儿童,10—16岁时的平均成绩比没有获得健康资源的儿童高0.19个标准差,且低收入家庭的儿童从早期健康投入中获益更大。我们还发现当早期健康投入外生增加时,低收入家庭儿童在10—16岁时健康水平显著提高,导致同期教育支出回报率提高7.6个百分点;高收入家庭则会多投入8.2%的资源用于子女的教育。

This study explores whether early-life health input improves cognitive abilities of children aged between 10 and 16. Using CFPS data we find that children who have received positive health input in uteruses and infancy show 0.19 standard deviations higher score in cognitive achievement than children who have not. Children in low-income families benefit more from early-life health input. The health status of low-income children improves at age 10 to 16 if they received early-life health input, further increasing the return to education expenditure by 7.6%. High-income children receive 8.1% more education resources from their families if they received early-life health input.