Women's schooling and children's health. Are the effects robust with adult sibling control for the women's childhood background?

Women's schooling is thought to have an important positive impact on children's health and nutrition in developing countries. A special adult sister sample from Nicaragua is used to explore this relation. Standard individual reduced-form estimates suggest a strong positive impact. With control for the unobserved common childhood family background characteristics shared by the sisters, the impact of women's schooling on nutrition is quite robust, but on the health outcomes declines substantially or evaporates. Thus, contrary to the standard estimates, mother's schooling does not appear to improve substantially their children's health outcomes, though it does seem to increase their nutrient intakes.