Masters, William

Nutrition Smoothing: Can Proximity to Towns and Cities Protect Rural Children against Seasonal Variation in Agroclimatic Conditions at Birth?

Publication Type

A large literature links early-life environmental shocks to later outcomes. This paper uses seasonal variation across the Democratic Republic of the Congo to test for nutrition smoothing, defined here as attaining similar height, weight and mortality outcomes despite different agroclimatic conditions at birth. We find that gaps between siblings and neighbors born at different times of year are larger in more remote rural areas, farther from the equator where there are greater seasonal differences in rainfall and temperature.

Agricultural policy for improved nutrition in Africa and Asia: evidence to guide the US Government's investments in food security

Publication Type

The roundtable process was designed to complement numerous past and ongoing efforts to assemble and disseminate rigorous evidence on how agricultural change can best help to improve international nutrition, beginning with the first Lancet Maternal and Child Nutrition series in 2008 and its follow-up in 2013 and other systematic reviews (Webb and Kennedy 2014), as well as assessments from private groups such as the Copenhagen Consensus (2014) and the Global Panel on Agriculture and Food Systems for Nutrition (2014), international organizations such as the World Bank (2007), the Food and Agri