Height in mid childhood and psychosocial competencies in late childhood: Evidence from four developing countries

•There are returns to psychosocial competencies in the labor market.•Little is known about the type of investments that produce these skills.•Self-esteem, self-efficacy and aspirations observed in Peru, India, Vietnam and Ethiopia at ages 11-12.•Robust correlation found between these measures and height-for-age at ages 7-8.•Results suggestive of a relationship between undernutrition and psychosocial competencies.

We use longitudinal data from children growing up in four developing countries (Peru, India, Vietnam, Ethiopia) to study the relationship between height at the age of 7-8 and a set of psychosocial competencies measured at the age of 11-12 that are known to be correlated with earnings during adulthood: self-efficacy, self-esteem and aspirations. Results show that a one standard deviation increase in height-for-age tends to increase self-efficacy, self-esteem and aspirations by 10.4%, 6.4% and 5.1%, respectively. We argue that these findings are likely to be informing of an underlying relationship between undernutrition and the formation of non-cognitive skills.