The Economics of Malnourished Children: An Example of Disinvestment in Human Capital.

In this paper, we report on one exercise of this type: a set of tentative estimates of the economic impact of infant malnutrition in Santiago, Chile. The approach is quite exploratory and reflects limitations both of data and of previous economic analysis of malnutrition problems. However, we can (and do) draw on the considerable body of "technological" information that has been gathered by nutritionists on the effects of malnutrition on child development. We accept these results as definite and base our estimates of benefits on them, in much the same way as an economist evaluating a steel mill accepts an engineer's figures on the amounts of iron, limestone, and coke necessary to produce a ton of final output. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]