Lack of information about health risks may limit the adoption of improved nutrition and other new healthy behaviors. This paper studies the effect of a nutrition-information intervention on household dietary behavior, hemoglobin levels, and cognitive outcomes of children in rural India. Using experimental data and a regression discontinuity design that exploits the exogenous cutoff of hemoglobin level for anemia, we find statistically insignificant treatment effects on dietary improvements, child health, and cognitive outcomes of children. Our findings suggest that light-touch nutrition information alone, even when parents are informed about the health risk of their children, may not induce adoption of healthy behaviors. Our findings also imply that factors other than information might constrain households in making nutritional investments for their children.

缺乏有关健康风险的信息可能会限制采用改善的营养和其他新的健康行为。本文研究了营养信息干预对印度农村儿童的家庭饮食行为、血红蛋白水平和认知结果的影响。使用实验数据和回归不连续性设计，该设计利用了贫血的血红蛋白水平的外源性截止值，我们发现治疗对饮食改善、儿童健康和儿童认知结果的影响在统计学上不显着。我们的研究结果表明，即使父母被告知孩子的健康风险，仅凭轻触的营养信息也可能不会促使他们采取健康的行为。