Revisiting the Impact of a Reproductive Health Intervention on Children's Height-for-Age with Evidence from Rural Bangladesh

This paper evaluates the impact of a reproductive health program on the nutritional status of children under the age of ten in rural Bangladesh. The program was administered in a treatment area while retaining an equally impoverished area as control through a doorstep delivery, allowing us to estimate treatment effects without problems of endogenous program placement and self-selected participation. A reduced form demand approach has been applied using Matlab Health and Socio-economic Survey of 1996 to estimate program effects, returns to mother's education, the joint effect of the program and household characteristics as well as gender differences in nutritional outcomes. Results indicate that the program significantly improves the health of boys and girls in the treatment area. Mother's education has a positive impact on child health, more so for girls than boys. The program is a substitute for maternal education in improving boys' health while a complement to household wealth in improving girls' nutritional status