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Maternal Education and Child Nutrition: Evidence from the 2000 and 2005 Ethiopian Demographic and Health Surveys DRAFT Alemayehu Azeze Ambel alemayehu.ambel@ Department of Economics Western Michigan University Abstract I used the 2000 and 2005 Ethiopian Demographic and Health Surveys to analyze the effect of maternal education and its pathways on chronic and acute malnutrition in Ethiopia. The pathways examined in this study are socioeconomic status, maternal health-seeking behavior, maternal knowledge of health and family planning and reproductive behavior. I find that maternal education works through all except health-seeking behavior. I also find that maternal education and its pathways are more relevant and robust in explaining chronic than acute malnutrition. Socioeconomic status is the most important factor linking maternal education and child nutritional status. Although girls’ education is a high policy priority, it may take time before its direct and indirect impacts substantially improve child health outcomes. Faster results would require direct interventions on key elements of socioeconomic status Keywords: Maternal Education, Nutrition, Children, Ethiopia JEL: I12; J13 1. Introduction The positive and strong relationship between maternal education and child health outcomes is widely documented and largely undisputed (Frongillo, de Onis and Hanson, 1997; Variyam et al, 1999; Alderman et al., 2000; Smith and Haddad, 2000). A large body of literature documents that maternal education works through a number of pathway variables that directly affects child health outcomes. The list includes a number of maternal, household and community characteristics such as socioeconomic status, geographic residence, nutritional and health knowledge, autonomy, health-seeking and reproductive behavior (Desai and Alva, 1998; Glewwe, 1999; Webb and Block, 2004; Frost, Forste and Haas, 2005). Therefore, the impact of education on child health is greatly a