TY  - JOUR
AU  - Almond,Douglas
AU  - Mazumder,Bhashkar
AU  - Ewijk,Reyn van
TI  - Fasting During Pregnancy and Children's Academic Performance
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 17713
PY  - 2011
Y2  - December 2011
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w17713
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w17713.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Douglas Almond
Department of Economics
Columbia University
International Affairs Building, MC 3308
420 West 118th Street
New York, NY 10027
Tel: 212/854-7248
Fax: 212/854-3239
E-Mail: da2152@columbia.edu

Bhashkar Mazumder
Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago
230 S. LaSalle Street
Chicago, IL  60604
Tel: 312-322-8166
E-Mail: bmazumder@frbchi.org

Reyn van Ewijk
IMBEI
University of  Mainz
Langenbeckstr. 1
55101 Mainz
Germany
E-Mail: vanewijk@imbei.uni-mainz.de
AB  - We consider the effects of daytime fasting by pregnant women during the lunar month of Ramadan on their children's test scores at age seven. Using English register data, we find that scores are .05 to .08 standard deviations lower for Pakistani and Bangladeshi students exposed to Ramadan in early pregnancy. These estimates are downward biased to the extent that Ramadan is not universally observed. We conclude that the effects of prenatal investments on test scores are comparable to many conventional educational interventions but are likely to be more cost effective and less subject to "fade out".
ER  -