Title: Health and nutrition impacts of targeted food payments in early life

Speaker: Ludi Wang (UCL, IFS)

Summary: In this seminar, Ludi Wang will share findings from an impact evaluation study using ECHILD health records alongside nutritional data. Specifically, we evaluate the impact of the UK Healthy Start Scheme – a targeted cash transfer designed to support healthy nutrition among low-income pregnant women and families with young children – on early life health and nutrition. We estimate Intent-To-Treat effects using a Difference-in-Differences design based on linked health and education records from ECHILD. To pin down the mechanism, we also estimate changes in families' food choices using consumer scanner data from the Worldpanel by Numerator, where we compare eligible and ineligible households as they age in and out of the program in a dynamic Difference-in-Differences setting. We find modest increases in birth weight and fruit and vegetable purchases, consistent with an improvement in the healthiness of families' shopping baskets translating into measurable early-life health benefits. Find out more about the project here.

Keywords: Healthy Start, impact evaluation, early life interventions, nutritional quality