Intergenerational Child Mortality Impacts of Deworming: Experimental Evidence from Two Decades of the Kenya Life Panel Survey

Michael W. Walker; Alice H. Huang; Suleiman Asman; Sarah J. Baird; Lia Fernald; Joan Hamory Hicks; Fernando Hoces de la Guardia; Satoshi Koiso; Michael Kremer; Matthew N. Krupoff; Michelle Layvant; Eric Ochieng; Pooja Suri; Edward Miguel

doi:10.3386/w31162

Intergenerational Child Mortality Impacts of Deworming: Experimental Evidence from Two Decades of the Kenya Life Panel Survey

Michael W. Walker, Alice H. Huang, Suleiman Asman, Sarah J. Baird, Lia Fernald, Joan Hamory Hicks, Fernando Hoces de la Guardia, Satoshi Koiso, Michael Kremer, Matthew N. Krupoff, Michelle Layvant, Eric Ochieng, Pooja Suri & Edward Miguel

Working Paper 31162

DOI 10.3386/w31162

Issue Date April 2023

We assess the impacts of a randomized school-based deworming intervention in Kenya on the mortality of recipients’ children using a 23-year longitudinal data set of over 6,500 original participants and their offspring. The under-5 mortality rate fell by 22% (17 deaths per 1000 live births) for children of treatment group individuals. We find that a combination of improved health, education and living standards, increased urban residence, delayed fertility, and greater use of health care in the parent generation contributed to the reduction. The results provide evidence for meaningful intergenerational benefits of child health investments.

We thank audiences at the Africa Meeting of the Econometric Society (2022), Advances with Field Experiments (2022), NEUDC (2022) and PacDev (2023) conferences for helpful suggestions. We gratefully acknowledge funding from the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) (#R01-TW05612, #R01-HD044475, #R01- HD090118, #R03-HD064888), the U.S. National Science Foundation (#SES-0418110, #SES-0962614), the Dioraphte Foundation, Givewell, and the Berkeley Population Center. Kremer works with the US Agency for International Development, which supports deworming, and was formerly a board member of Deworm the World, a 501(c)3 organization. Human subjects approval was obtained from the University of California, Berkeley and Maseno University in Kenya. This study is registered on the American Economic Association’s Randomized Controlled Trials Registry (AEARCTR-0001191). The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Michael Kremer
Disclosure Statement of Michael Kremer

Co-author of “Blue Spoons: Sparking Communication About Appropriate Technology Use”

______________________________________________________________________

1. I am a faculty member at the University of Chicago, where I also direct the Development Innovation Lab and Development Economics Center.

2. I am Counselor to the USAID Administrator on Open Innovation and Scientific Director of USAID’s Development Innovation Ventures, which supports deworming

3. I was formerly a board member of Deworm the World, a 501(c)3 organization
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Michael W. Walker, Alice H. Huang, Suleiman Asman, Sarah J. Baird, Lia Fernald, Joan Hamory Hicks, Fernando Hoces de la Guardia, Satoshi Koiso, Michael Kremer, Matthew N. Krupoff, Michelle Layvant, Eric Ochieng, Pooja Suri, and Edward Miguel, "Intergenerational Child Mortality Impacts of Deworming: Experimental Evidence from Two Decades of the Kenya Life Panel Survey," NBER Working Paper 31162 (2023), https://doi.org/10.3386/w31162.

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Intergenerational Child Mortality Impacts of Deworming: Experimental Evidence from Two Decades of the Kenya Life Panel Survey

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