There is strong evidence that children of better educated parents in developing countries are healthier and our results are consistent with this evidence. Although a reduced-form framework does not permit us to infer the mechanisms through which parental education affects child anthropometry, our findings show that these effects are robust to the inclusion of potentially confounding factors at both household and community levels.<sup>22</sup> Model 1 shows the strong correlation between mother's education and child height observed in the EGSF sample. Roughly, one additional year of formal education is associated with a one-tenth standard deviation increase in anthropometric score. However, a non-linear pattern emerges. In the univariate regression, children of mothers with secondary or higher education are one standard deviation taller than children of mothers with no education (a huge difference). The differential remains substantial and significant when we control for all exogenous covariates. On the other hand, the effect of primary education is reduced by more than three-quarters and is no longer significant when all the variables are included as covariates (Models 6 and 7). The effect of father's education on children's height-for-age outcomes is similar to that of mother's education, although generally smaller in magnitude. One exception is the huge differential in height observed between children of fathers with no education and children of fathers with post-secondary education (1.7 and 0.8 standard deviations in the z-score respectively, before and after controlling for all other factors).

There is some uncertainty in the literature about the size and significance of effects of household resource availability on child anthropometry (Thomas and Strauss 1992; Lavy _et al._ 1996). Our findings indicate that, when measured in terms of expenditure per capita, household resource availability has a substantial and highly significant effect in Guatemala. Models 6 and 7 indicate that, other variables being equal, children living in families with a per capita monthly expenditure at the **90 th** percentile (52.5 quetzals) are 0.3 standard deviations taller than children living in families with a per capita monthly expenditure at the 1 **O'h** percentile (9.5 quetzals).<sup>23</sup>

# 7.2.1 **Community Covariates**

The public health variables are all significantly (individually and jointly ) associated with child anthropometry. Improved water and sanitation are expected to be associated with reduced exposure to

> **22** Since Caldwell's early work in Nigeria (1979), explanations for the independent effect of parents' education on child health and survival have focused on the nature of health beliefs and health care norms and practices, reactions to illness and decision making during illness. Caldwell argues that the schooling process produces a less fatalistic attitude towards life and eventually results in parents' more conscious and more effective efforts toward combating their children's illness. More educated parents are more capable of manipulating the resources that modem medicine makes available. Not only does education provide skills and knowledge to the parents, but it also reinforces their self-confidence and initiative towards modem health care practices. Specifically, parents with additional years of schooling are more likely to know where modem health care facilities and providers can be found, to visit them more frequently and to control the child health care process more effectively.

- **23** Such a difference is 43 Guatemalan quetzals, about 8.5 US dollars.

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