NOVAFRICA publication in The  Economic Journal: “Maternal Investments in Children: The Role of Expected Effort and Returns”

By NOVAFRICA Nova School of Business and Economics professor Adeline Delavande with co-authors, Sonia Bhalotra, Paulino Font Gilabert, and Joanna Maselko.

Using survey-based measures of mothers’ expectations, the authors examine how perceived effort costs and expected returns shape two key maternal investments in newborns: breastfeeding and stimulation.

They find:

✅ Significant heterogeneity across mothers in rural Pakistan in how costly they expect these investments to be, and how much they expect them to improve child outcomes (cognitive, socio-emotional, and health).
✅ Preferences for child developmental outcomes do not differ significantly across women—what varies is their expectations.
✅ Simulations suggest that policies addressing maternal depression and reducing perinatal effort costs could substantially increase maternal investments.

👉 These findings highlight the importance of considering not only preferences, but also subjective expectations when designing interventions to improve early childhood development.

📑 Access paper here