Table 2.

Variable definitions and summary statistics

Number of obs (n): 6101
Number of unique children: 3427
Variable	Definition	Mean (Std. Dev.)	Expected Sign
Outcome Variables
Stunting	binary variable =1 if child’s z-score is more than two standard deviations (2sd) below WHO reference mean for height for age	0.222a (0.416)	---
Wasting	binary variable =1 if child’s z-score is more than 2sd below WHO reference mean for weight for height	0.031a (0.175)	---
Underweight	binary variable =1 if child’s z-score is more than 2sd below WHO reference mean for weight for age	0.098 (0.297)	---
Covariates
SBS	staple food spending as a percentage of total household food expenditures	43.743 (19.579)	(+)
Food insecurity	binary variable =1 if hh reported it did not have enough food in one or more months that year, 0 otherwise	0.331 (0.471)	(+)
Spending	Total household spending (100,000 UGX 2011)	52.580 (73.515)	(−)
Household head	binary variable =1 if hh head is male, 0 otherwise	0.791 (0.407)	---
Average age	The average age of individuals residing in the household	22.329 (6.465)	---
Household occupants	Number of individuals residing in the household	5.446 (2.663)	(+)
Percent female	Percent of adults in the household that are female	53.533 (19.180)	(−)
Urban	binary variable =1 if dwelling is in an urban area, 0 otherwise	0.131 (0.337)	(−)
Father present	binary variable =1 if father is present in the household, 0 otherwise	0.722 (0.448)	(−)
Mother present	binary variable =1 if mother is present in the household, 0 otherwise	0.876 (0.330)	(−)
Household head educated	binary variable =1 if household head completed at least one year of schooling, 0 otherwise	0.411 (0.492)	(+)
Male	binary variable =1 if child is male, 0 otherwise	0.503 (0.500)	---

^aFull sample means. Stunting subsample means: ≤ 12 months 0.118, > 12 months 0.242, males 0.248, females 0.196. Wasting subsample means: ≤ 12 months 0.060, > 12 months 0.026, males 0.037, females 0.026