One indirect effect of expenditure on education may be its effects on health. Within developing countries, the children of educated parents face lower risks of premature death. This is apparent from analysis of both the World Fertility Surveys and the subsequent Demographic and Health Surveys (Hobcraft, 1993). Parental education is also associated with better child anthropometric status (weight and height), although the association is less marked than that with mortality. However, in socio-economic surveys, educated parents are often more likely to report that their children have been ill. This suggests that educated parents are better at recognising medical problems in their children.
Part of the association between parental education and child mortality may work via household income. However, the independent impact of education in models which carefully control for income shows this cannot be the only transmission mechanism. Indeed, many studies have found education to have a stronger direct effect on child health than income.8 The direct effect of education may be informational. In Uganda, recent work found educated mothers to be better informed about various diseases and that such information was strongly associated with lower child mortality (Mackinnon, 1995). Similarly, in Morocco, mothers’ education appears to improve child anthropometric status by providing cognitive skills which increase knowledge about health (Glewwe, 1997). In Côte d’Ivoire and Kenya, educated mothers are more likely to send sick children for treatment (Appleton, 1992).
Human Capital and Economic Development Simon Appleton and Francis Teal
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