Deworming as Human Capital Investment

Deworming as human capital investment is the source’s health-education example in Piles of cash and a town of solutions in Kenya, Nigeria (Summer School). Ted Miguel evaluated free medicine for parasitic worms among schoolchildren near Busia, and the episode says treated children attended school more often.

The longer-run claim is that early health treatment can affect later work and income. In the source, a follow-up study linked deworming to better jobs and higher incomes, making the intervention part of Human Capital Development rather than only disease control.

Key Claims

• Health can be an education intervention when illness keeps children from school.
• Randomized evidence can make low-cost health interventions visible to governments.
• Follow-up studies matter because human-capital returns can appear years after treatment.
• Deworming also illustrates Positive Externality because reducing infections can benefit untreated people nearby.

Connections

• Kenya, Ted Miguel, and Randomized Controlled Trials - source setting, researcher, and method.
• Evidence-Based Development Policy - policy-uptake frame.
• Remedial Education Targeting - adjacent Busia education-policy lesson.