Ninja Ritter Klejnstrup|Julie Buhl-Wiggers|Sam Jones|John Rand
Early life malaria exposure and academic performance
University of Copenhagen|Copenhagen Business School|University of Copenhagen|University of Copenhagen
malaria major cause morbidity mortality subsaharan africa also dynamic contributor poverty effects childrens cognitive development paper examines degree malaria early childhood impacts educational achievement later childhood substantial decline malaria region recent years allows assessment impact made focusing tanzania combine data malaria atlas project 20102014 uwezo household surveys n 246325 relate districtlevel risk malaria childs year birth hisher performance tests acquired cognitive skills literacy numeracy causal identification rely differences across districts pace decline malaria prevalence occurring last 15 years control timeinvariant district level age birth cohort survey year effects well districtlevel trends individual householdspecific factors addition use sibling variation birthyear exposure malaria strengthen identification ten percentagepoint decrease malaria prevalence birth year associated 006 standard deviation p 0000 increase english literacy achievement estimate comparable magnitude education intervention programs large effects results robust large number sensitivity analyses find statistically significant effects birthyear malaria exposure attainments numeracy kiswahili argue probably attributable strong ceiling effects test scores conclude tanzania malaria important factor geographical variation english literacy indicates malaria significant public health challenge educational achievement country probably regions malaria