Does mother's education matter in child's health? Evidence from South Africa

Abstract

This paper studies the effect that mother's education as knowledge has on child health using height for age as health measure. Using cross sectional data from de 1993 South Africa Integrated Household Survey, and health measures form de National Center for Health Statistics, we find a significant and positive effect of mother's education on the height of a child. Specifically comparing a woman without any education with one with eight years of schooling implies that on average a two-year old child would be a half centimeter higher. In order to isolate de knowledge effect of mother's education, we control for household and community resources. Additionally, we test for a differential impact of mother's education depending on the age of the child. We observe a more important impact on children between 3 and 6 years old. Finally, our results suggest a complementarity between mother's and father's education.