Investments that improve children’s living conditions often have a high return. While there is much research focused on specific policies developed when individuals are in utero and in the first years of life, relatively little is known about the long-term effects of universal programs aimed at improving health in the middle periodbetween childhood and adulthood.
An example is the state programs of school canteens, very common in developed countries. These programs are especially interesting since this average period is key in establishing a diet and eating habits of high nutritional quality. In addition, with them you have the possibility of reaching a large number of children at a relatively low cost, through the educational system.
School canteen policies between countries are very varied, especially in the EU. In Sweden, Finland and Estonia, school canteens are fully subsidized by the state. In Spain, France, Italy and Great Britain, a small part of the families are subsidized through dining room scholarships, and the rest pay the full cost. In Norway and Denmark, there are no school canteens, and children bring their own food to school. There is a paucity of causal evidence for the long-term effects of these initiatives.
More nutritional quality, more health, more height, more years studying and more future income
In a paper published a few months ago in Review of Economic Studies, Lundborg, Rooth and Petersen study the causal effect of the Swedish universal school canteen system on long-term outcomes. The authors do an impressive job of collecting historical data. They are able to match historical data with administrative data on the Swedish population, the results of which look at students from when they are in primary school until they leave the labor market. The authors take advantage of the gradual implementation of the program in Swedish municipalities between 1959 and 1969, to use a difference-in-differences identification strategy.
The results of this research show that the program generates positive long-term effects. Students who were exposed throughout their primary education (nine years) to the universal school canteen program increased their earnings by 3% over their working lives compared to students who were not exposed. The authors find heterogeneous effects by household income, with the return of school canteens decreasing in family income.
Those whose family income was at the bottom of the income distribution benefited the most from this policy, increasing their future income by 5.8%. However, students belonging to the rest of the income distribution quartiles also benefited (around 2%). Thus, although earnings were not equal for all, the positive return from this universal program is, in fact, universal across income level.
The universal school canteen also increased the years of schooling and the probability of accessing university. Significant improvement in nutritional quality is the main mechanism by which students improve their results. The students exposed to the program were taller, and the men were healthier when they entered their mandatory military service. Regarding family finances, the program did not generate a significant improvement derived from the reduction in spending on food. However, the program significantly increased the labor supply of mothers (without altering those of fathers).
School canteens in Spain
Spain has a partially subsidized school canteen system, in which each autonomous community has its own regulation on the services it offers. Nearly 11.2% of the total number of students are entitled to a dining room scholarship, while the rest of the families must bear the full cost.
There are strong differences between autonomous communities. In the 2020/21 academic year, the daily price of the dining room ranged between 3.5 and 6.5 euros per day (between 612.5 and 1,137 euros per year). Catalonia and the Balearic Islands registered the highest prices (6.5 and 6.33 euros, respectively), while Asturias and the Canary Islands offered the lowest (3.5 and 3.63 euros).
In Spain, 23.3% of children are overweight, and 17.3% are obese, this percentage being one of the highest in the EU (Educo, 2022). Furthermore, only 40.2% of primary school students use the school canteen, so there is huge room for improvement.
Cost-benefit analysis for Spain
To determine if the implementation of a universal school canteen program would be beneficial for Spain, a cost-benefit analysis is needed. Therefore, based on the results of Lundborg, Rooth and Petersen (2022), I have developed a preliminary cost-benefit analysis of this program for Spain.
The cost estimate is based on a report prepared by the NGO Educo. In it, it is taken into account that the current cost of the canteen in primary school is the product of the maximum price per autonomous community for 175 school days per year times the number of users. It is calculated that the total cost of the school cafeteria per year amounts to 737.3 million euros, to serve 861,928 students, which gives us an expense per student of 855.52 euros per year. Assuming nine years of the program (second cycle of infant and primary education) and a discount rate of 3%, I obtain a total cost per student of 6,861 euros.
The estimate of income for those nine years is approximated using the 2017 Bank of Spain Family Financial Survey (EFF). In it I have estimated the annual individual income by making a weighted average of the average income divided by the number of people working at home, with which I obtain an average annual income of 26,483 euros. Assuming that the average age of entering the labor market is 23 years, retirement occurs at 67 years, and a discount rate of 3%, I obtain that the discounted present value of the total income per student is 19,848 euros.
Reconciling the net present values of cost and total income, it becomes clear that a universal school canteen program in Spain would be cost-effective. The benefit-cost ratio is 3, implying that for every euro invested in school canteens we will obtain three in the long term.
The program is even more effective for those students from families with lower incomes, where the ratio rises to 5.5. These results are very similar to those found by the Swedish researchers. The benefit-cost ratio of this program is high compared to other programs. It is about double that of the US government Head Start program (Kline and Walters, 2016), and similar to that of the Perry Preschool Project and the Carolina Abecedarian Project (Heckman et al., 2010) for students with fewer resources.
Great long-term benefits
It should be borne in mind that these calculations are probably underestimated, since the potential positive externalities of the program are not being taken into account, such as the increase in income tax collection or the improvement in the health of individuals that will result in a reduction in long-term health cost.
In the short term, there are two important material limitations for its application:
In Spain, approximately 70% of public early childhood and primary education centers have a canteen. Building the infrastructure for all schools is estimated at 400 million a year for five years (Ferrero, Gortazar and Martínez, 2022; Save the Children, 2022).
The cost of the universal kitchen in Spain would amount to 1,664 million euros per year (Educo, 2022), which represents an increase of 1,472 million euros more than the current scenario of scholarships and aid.
The budget restriction is fundamental, although the figures are not exorbitant. Bearing in mind that the education budget is around 50 billion euros a year, assuming these points means increasing total spending by 3.7% in the first five years, and 2.9% thereafter compared to at the current level.
In view of these results, a change towards a universal school canteen program would be a very beneficial public policy for Spain in the long term.
There are also other initiatives that have positive effects that could be complementary, such as school breakfasts) or vending healthier).
If the goal is to get the most out of public resources by implementing educational policies with high long-term returns, the universal school cafeteria is the ideal candidate.
A version of this article was originally published on Nothing is free.
José Montalbán Castilla, Assistant Professor in Economics, Stockholm University
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original.
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