Abstract

Childhood obesity is one of the major public health challenges of the 21st century. Randomized interventions have shown promising evidence of long-term effects from nutrition services on children’s health. However, it is yet unclear whether scaled-up programs, such as school meals, prevent children’s obesity risk. I implement a fuzzy regression discontinuity approach on national administrative data to estimate the short-and medium-run effects of the Chilean school meal program (SMP) on children’s body mass index (BMI) z-scores. Girls’ eligibility in first grade reduces local average obesity prevalence by 4 percentage points. Continued eligibility reduces boys’ local average obesity prevalence in fifth grade by .10 percentage points. Effects concentrate among children with high BMI z-scores and are partly driven by improvements in the nutritional quality of meals. Children attending schools providing psychosocial support exhibit larger benefits from SMP eligibility, consistent with spill-over effects from the integration of stimulation and nutrition interventions. © 2023 American Society of Health Economists.