Why are Palestinian refugee children shorter than the children of host community in Jordan?

ABSTRACT There is a marked height difference between Palestinian children living in the refugee camps and children of the remaining population in Jordan. Children living in refugee camps are significantly shorter than the rest of the children in the hosting population. We explore the drivers of the height gap, measured by the height for age z-score, among children residing in refugee camps and the non-camp residents. A Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition is used to quantify the sources of the inequalities between the two groups into two components; one that is explained by regional differences in the level of the determinants, and another part that is explained by differences in the effect of the determinants of the child nutritional status. Our results suggest that the endowment effect dominates the coefficients effect. More specifically, the height gap is mainly driven by wealth disparities between the two groups. Poverty alleviation programs such as conditional cash transfers programs and microfinance to camps’ residents would help to reduce the spatial nutrition inequalities.