Cognitive Effects of Supplementary School Feeding Programme

Afridi, Barooah and Somanathan use the exogenous policy shock of the extension of provision of school meals to upper primary grades in public schools in Delhi to study the effects of school meal intake on the cognitive effort of students within the classroom. Using individual level data on the performance of students in effort games both before and after the extension of the programme, the researchers find that the provision of meals significantly improved the classroom effort of students in grade seven. Afridi et al conclude that school meals have the potential to increase educational attainment in the classroom.