Working papers
How Much are Multisectoral Programs Worth? A New Method with an Application to School Meals (with H. Alderman, A. Gelli, B. Wong, F. Turkson, P. Twumasi Baffour), submitted
School Meals as a Market for Smallholder Agriculture Experimental Evidence from Ghana (with A. Gelli, H. Alderman, et al). Submitted
Publications by topics:
Child education and learning, including the impact of school meals and social protection
Child food security, nutrition and health
Miscellaneous
Understanding and tackling poverty and vulnerability in mountain livelihoods in the Hindu Kush Himalaya (with G. Gioli et al.). The Hindu Kush Himalaya assessment: Mountains, Climate Change, Sustainability and People. 2019, Springer, link to book
Permanent working papers
Selecting a core set of indicators to monitor global food security: A methodological proposal
FAO Working Paper Series, 2014
Appropriate measures to track progress towards global food security are critical for designing and evaluating policies and programs as well to enhance the accountability of the policy process. However, finding an agreement on a common framework for the monitoring of countries’ and global food security is nonetheless challenging for various reasons. Ultimately, this exercise relates to the selection of the most appropriate informational basis for the monitoring of global food security and of which criteria should inform this choice. This paper proposes a methodology to select indicators in multidimensional assessments, such as the ones required for the measurement of food security. By linking the overarching objectives of the evaluation to the nature of the indicators, this methodology is able to discriminate among the hundreds of indicators proposed in the literature. The proposed methodology provides the conceptual framework underpinning the selection of the suite of core food security indicators first presented in the 2012 State of Food Insecurity in the World (FAO 2012), and, while this specific application focuses on the monitoring of global food security, it is more generally suitable for the measurement of other multidimensional phenomena.
Exploring the effect of educational opportunity and inequality on learning outcomes in Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam (with Z. James and C. Rolleston)
UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report Background Paper, 2013
`If we eat well, we can study'. Dietary diversity in the everyday lives of children in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, India (with V. Morrow)
Young Lives, Working Paper n. 144
Young Lives Ethiopia School Survey 2012-13. Data Overview Report (with Z. James and C. Rolleston)
Young Lives, Working Paper n. 134, 2014
How Much are Multisectoral Programs Worth? A New Method with an Application to School Meals (with H. Alderman, A. Gelli, B. Wong, F. Turkson, P. Twumasi Baffour), submitted
School Meals as a Market for Smallholder Agriculture Experimental Evidence from Ghana (with A. Gelli, H. Alderman, et al). Submitted
Publications by topics:
Child education and learning, including the impact of school meals and social protection
- Improving learning in low- and middle-income countries (with N. Angrist, H. Patrinos, G. Paratchopolous, R. Nordjo, B. Wong). Journal of Cost Benefit Analysis (link), 2023
- Food for thought? Experimental evidence on the impact of a large-scale school feeding program on learning (with A. Gelli, C. Adamba, I. Osei-Akoto, A. Alderman), 2023, Journal of Human Resources (Latest version here), 2023
- Medium-term Protective Effects of Quality Early Childhood Education during the Covid-19 Pandemic in Ghana. Child development, with S. Wolf, et al (2022)
- Remote learning engagement and learning outcomes during school closures in Ghana. International Journal of Educational Research, with S. Wolf, et al (2022)
- Social protection for child development in crisis: A review of evidence and knowledge gaps. World Bank Research Observer. (With S. Giunti) (open access link) 2021
- School Feeding or General Food Distribution? Quasi-Experimental Evidence on the Educational Impacts of Emergency Food Assistance during Conflict in Mali (with A. Gelli, J.P. Tranchant and A. Sekou-Diallo). 2019. Journal of Development Studies (open access link)
- Inequalities in adolescent learning: Does the timing and persistence of food insecurity at home matter? (with J. Fledderjohann and S. Vellakkal) Economics of Education Review, 2019 (open access link). Media: The Conversation, Site4Society, Times of India, Business Standard India, New Indian Express, Yahoo India, Psych Central News, Devdiscourse, The Week, The Sector (Australia), The Hindu
- How much difference does school make and for whom? A two-country study of the impact of school quality on educational attainment (with S. Krutikova and C. Rolleston) Growing Up in Poverty 2014, Pages: 201-224
Child food security, nutrition and health
- The rise and fall of SES gradients in height around the world (with A. Lleras-Muney, A. Tarozzi, B. Tinoco). Journal of Health Economics (link), 2023 Read our VoxEu column here.
- Children’s educational outcomes and persistence and severity of household food insecurity in India: Longitudinal evidence from Young Lives (with T. Argaw, J. Fledderjohann, S. Vellakkal). Journal of Nutrition 2023 (link)
- Household food insecurity and Early Childhood Development: Longitudinal Evidence from Ghana (with S. Wolf and E. Tsinigo). PLOS One, 2020 (link). Media: BOLD (Blog on Learning and Development), The Conversation, Uniiq 95.7 fm (Ghana), CBG Ghana TV onlin
- A school meals program implemented at scale in Ghana increases height-for-age during mid-childhood in girls and in children from poor households: A cluster randomised trial. (with A. Gelli et al.) Journal of Nutrition 2019 (open access link)
- A free lunch or a walk back home? The school food environment and dietary behaviours among children and adolescents in Ghana (with M. Fernandes, A. Gelli and G. Folson) Food security 2017, Vol. 9, Pages: 1073-1090 (open access link)
- The impact of food assistance on food insecure populations during conflict: Evidence from a quasi-experiment in Mali (with J.P. Tranchant, A. Gelli, E. Masset et al.) World Development, 2018 (open access link)
- Evaluation of alternative school feeding models on nutrition, education, agriculture and other social outcomes in Ghana: rationale, randomised design and baseline data (with A. Gelli et al.) Trials 2017, Vol: 17 (open access link)
- The double burden of malnutrition among youth: Trajectories and inequalities in four emerging economies (with J. Behrman, W. Schott, M. Penny), Economics and Human Biology, 2019 (open access link)
- "Food prices were high, and the dal became watery". Mixed-method evidence on household food insecurity and children's diets in India (with Virginia Morrow) World Development, 2018, Vol: 111, Pages: 211-224 (open access link) Media: UNICEF connect
- Do boys eat better than girls in India? Longitudinal evidence on dietary diversity and food consumption disparities among children and adolescents Economics and Human Biology, 2017, Vol: 25, Pages: 99-111 (open access link) Media: Times of India, Live Mint, Deccan Chronicle, Hindustan times, Newsminute, Governance now magazine, Hyderabad city online, Health canal (US); ICRISAT
- Trends and Factors Associated with the Nutritional Status of Adolescent Girls in Ghana: A Secondary Analysis of the 2003-2014 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey (GDHS) Data (with F.Azupogo et al). Public Health Nutrition (link)
- Nutritional Status from 1 to 15 Years and Adolescent Learning for Boys and Girls in Ethiopia, India, Peru, and Vietnam (with J. Behrman, W. Schott, M. Penny), Population Research and Policy Review 2019
- Time use and sexual maturity−related indicators differentially predict youth body mass indices, Peruvian girls versus boys (with J. Behrman, W. Schott, M. Penny), Annals of the New York Academy of Science 2019 (open access link)
- Agro-ecological zone and farm diversity are factors associated with haemoglobin and anaemia among rural school-aged children and adolescents in Ghana (with F. Azugupo, A. Gelli, I. Brower, G. Folson) Maternal and Child Nutrition 2018
- Investment in child and adolescent health and development: key messages from Disease Control Priorities, 3rd Edition (with D. Bundy, et al.) Lancet 2018, Vol: 391, Pages: 687-69
- Birth weight and prepubertal body size predict menarcheal age in India, Peru, and Vietnam (with J. Behrman, W. Schott, M. Penny), Annals of the New York Academy of Science, 2018, Vol 1416, Pages: 86-106 (open access link)
- Adolescent mothers' anthropometrics and grandmothers' schooling predict infant anthropometrics in Ethiopia, India, Peru, and Vietnam (with J. Behrman, W. Schott, M. Penny) Annals of the New York Academy of Science 2018, 1416, Pages: 86-106 (open access link
- Roads to interdisciplinarity - working at the nexus among food systems, nutrition and health (With F. Picchioni, et al.)
Food security 2018, Vol. 10, Issue 4 (open access link) - Enhancing linkages between healthy diets, local agriculture, and sustainable food systems: the school meals planner package in Ghana (with M. Fernandes et al.) Food Nutrition Bulletin 2017, Vol: 37, Pages: 571-584 (open access link)
- School feeding programs in middle childhood and adolescence (with L. Drake et al.)Disease Control Priorities 3. 2017, Child and Adolescent Development 2017, Vol. 8, Pages: 147-16
- Identifying an essential package of interventions for school-age child health: economic analysis (with M. Fernandes)Disease Control Priorities 3. 2017, Child and Adolescent Development 2017, Vol. 8, Pages: 355-368. Discussion: This week in Global Health
- The nutrition transition and adolescents’ diets in low-and middle-income countries: a cross-cohort comparison (with M. Fernandes and M. Penny) Public Health Nutrition 2017, Vol. 20 (1), Pages: 72-81
- Children's Multidimensional Health and Medium-Term Cognitive Skills in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (with F. Burchi) (2017)
Miscellaneous
Understanding and tackling poverty and vulnerability in mountain livelihoods in the Hindu Kush Himalaya (with G. Gioli et al.). The Hindu Kush Himalaya assessment: Mountains, Climate Change, Sustainability and People. 2019, Springer, link to book
Permanent working papers
Selecting a core set of indicators to monitor global food security: A methodological proposal
FAO Working Paper Series, 2014
Appropriate measures to track progress towards global food security are critical for designing and evaluating policies and programs as well to enhance the accountability of the policy process. However, finding an agreement on a common framework for the monitoring of countries’ and global food security is nonetheless challenging for various reasons. Ultimately, this exercise relates to the selection of the most appropriate informational basis for the monitoring of global food security and of which criteria should inform this choice. This paper proposes a methodology to select indicators in multidimensional assessments, such as the ones required for the measurement of food security. By linking the overarching objectives of the evaluation to the nature of the indicators, this methodology is able to discriminate among the hundreds of indicators proposed in the literature. The proposed methodology provides the conceptual framework underpinning the selection of the suite of core food security indicators first presented in the 2012 State of Food Insecurity in the World (FAO 2012), and, while this specific application focuses on the monitoring of global food security, it is more generally suitable for the measurement of other multidimensional phenomena.
Exploring the effect of educational opportunity and inequality on learning outcomes in Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam (with Z. James and C. Rolleston)
UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report Background Paper, 2013
`If we eat well, we can study'. Dietary diversity in the everyday lives of children in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, India (with V. Morrow)
Young Lives, Working Paper n. 144
Young Lives Ethiopia School Survey 2012-13. Data Overview Report (with Z. James and C. Rolleston)
Young Lives, Working Paper n. 134, 2014