We examine the role of early childhood health in human capital accumulation.
Using a unique data set from Ghana with comprehensive information on
individual, family, community, school quality characteristics and a direct measure
of intelligence together with test scores, we examine the long-term cognitive effects
of the 1983 famine on survivors. We show that differences in intelligence test
scores can be robustly explained by the differential impact of the famine in
different parts of the country and the impacts are most severe for children under
two years of age during the famine. We also account for model uncertainty by
using Bayesian Model Averaging.