Child stunting and socio-economic inequality in Latin America and the Caribbean

This paper investigates the factors determining the extent of the problem of child stunting and its socio-economic distribution in eight countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. It does so using a methodology that allows a socio-economic inequality index (the concentration index) to be decomposed by the factors affecting it. In the countries analysed, household “wealth” (measured by an indicator of material well-being) and maternal education are the most important determinants in the distribution of child stunting. The biomedical factors considered may be important in explaining the level of stunting, but their contribution to explaining inequality is relatively small. Geographical, cultural, ethnic and idiosyncratic factors also play a limited explanatory role, one that apparently depends on their relationship to the distribution of the socio-economic variables mentioned.