An unhealthy favouritism

摘要

You study economics of child malnutrition. What is the "south Asian enigma"? It is the fact that Indian and other south Asian children are more malnourished than children in equally poor, or poorer, places. For example, on average, India is richer than sub-Saharan Africa, and it does better on many dimensions, including infant, adult and maternal mortality. But in terms of children's weight and height - indicators of nutrition or exposure to disease - Indian kids are smaller. They do worse.