Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/207452 
Year of Publication: 
2019
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 12627
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
Hunger and malnourishment can adversely affect students' performance by lowering their effort and cognition during school hours. We conduct a lab-in-the field experiment, leveraging the extension of India's school meal program from primary to middle grades, to study the effects of school-based supplementary nutrition on students' cognitive effort in the classroom. Using individual level data on the performance of students in a cognitive task both before and after the extension of the program as well as pre and post meal recess on a school day, we find that the provision of meals improved the cognitive performance of students by 13% to 16%. This result is robust to unobserved heterogeneity in school quality and student ability. Our findings suggest that short-term improvements in classroom attention and effort due to school meals can be a mechanism through which longer-term learning outcomes may improve in developing countries.
Subjects: 
school meals
malnourishment
performance
classroom
maze puzzles
India
JEL: 
I21
I25
H52
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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