Public Nutrition Program and Household Education Spending : New Evidence for Intra-Household Flypaper Effect of School Feeding Program in Rural China

This paper investigates the impact of a public school nutrition program on household education expenditure from a novel perspective of the intra-household flypaper effect (IFE). In theory, public feeding programs not only improve children's health but also increase the future return on their human capital, thereby encouraging parents in low-income households to invest more in their children's education. Using data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), we empirically evaluate the IFE of the Nutrition Improvement Program for Rural Compulsory Education Students (RSNIP) and reveal that households eligible for the program reduce food expenditure, indicating a negative IFE from a narrow perspective. However, the program incentivizes households to spend more on education, suggesting the existence of positive IFE in its broad sense of child-related expenditure. Our findings support the role of public feeding programs in promoting education equality and reducing intergenerational poverty risk in addition to improving children's health