Growing Pains: Timing of In Utero Rainfall Shocks and Child Growth in Rural Rwanda

Abstract

Families that rely on rain-fed agriculture are prone to rainfall shocks. We use a unique data set of at-risk children in rural Rwanda to estimate the impact of rainfall shocks during a child’s in utero period. We find that increases in in utero rainfall during the midseason period increase child height-for-age z-scores but that increases in in utero rainfall in the harvest period lower these z-scores. In light of these period-specific effects, annual rainfall measures may attenuate estimates of child growth effects toward zero. We also find that intraseasonal impacts of rainfall on child growth are particularly salient for households that do not report any off-farm income sources and therefore rely solely on their own agricultural production for their livelihoods.