Fasting during pregnancy and children's academic performance
By: Douglas Almond, Bhashkar Mazumder, Reyn van Ewijk
Contributors: Mazumder, Bhashkar; Ewijk, Reyn van; National Bureau of Economic Research
Series: NBER working paper series -- working paper 17713; Working paper series (National Bureau of Economic Research : Online) -- working paper no. 17713.
Publisher: National Bureau of Economic Research
Published: 2011
Place of publication: Cambridge, MA
Language: eng
Format: Electronic resource
Description: "The NBER Bulletin on Aging and Health provides summaries of publications like this.  You can sign up to receive the NBER Bulletin on Aging and Health by email.  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""--National Bureau of Economic Research web site.
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