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The Effect of Nutritious School Lunches on Education, Health, and Life-Time Income

Lundborg, Petter LU and Rooth, Dan Olof LU (2022) In CESifo Forum 23(1). p.52-56
Abstract

In this article we present the long-run gains of adopting a nutritious school meal program for Swedish children. During the 1960s, Sweden rolled out a universal program that provided nutritious school lunches free of charge to all children in Swedish primary schools. Our results show that the school lunch program generated substantial long-term benefits, where pupils exposed to the program during their entire primary school period have 3 percent greater life-time earnings. This effect was greater for pupils from poor households, suggesting that the program reduced socioeconomic inequalities in adulthood. Exposure to the school lunch program also had substantial effects on educational attainment and health

Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
CESifo Forum
volume
23
issue
1
pages
5 pages
publisher
Ifo institute for Economic Research e.V.
external identifiers
  • scopus:85125274569
ISSN
1615-245X
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
573595cc-bffc-44db-9772-9ff26cac6e7c
alternative location
https://www.cesifo.org/DocDL/CESifo-Forum-2022-1-rooth-lundborg-lunch-reform-january.pdf
date added to LUP
2022-04-27 08:36:15
date last changed
2022-05-05 08:41:30
@article{573595cc-bffc-44db-9772-9ff26cac6e7c,
  abstract     = {{<p>In this article we present the long-run gains of adopting a nutritious school meal program for Swedish children. During the 1960s, Sweden rolled out a universal program that provided nutritious school lunches free of charge to all children in Swedish primary schools. Our results show that the school lunch program generated substantial long-term benefits, where pupils exposed to the program during their entire primary school period have 3 percent greater life-time earnings. This effect was greater for pupils from poor households, suggesting that the program reduced socioeconomic inequalities in adulthood. Exposure to the school lunch program also had substantial effects on educational attainment and health</p>}},
  author       = {{Lundborg, Petter and Rooth, Dan Olof}},
  issn         = {{1615-245X}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{1}},
  pages        = {{52--56}},
  publisher    = {{Ifo institute for Economic Research e.V.}},
  series       = {{CESifo Forum}},
  title        = {{The Effect of Nutritious School Lunches on Education, Health, and Life-Time Income}},
  url          = {{https://www.cesifo.org/DocDL/CESifo-Forum-2022-1-rooth-lundborg-lunch-reform-january.pdf}},
  volume       = {{23}},
  year         = {{2022}},
}