LRF CEB
The Larsson-Rosenquist Foundation Center for Economics of Breastfeeding at the University of Zurich is led by Professor Ingvild Almås.
LRF CEB focus: The Center aims to improve our understanding of household decision-making and causal effects of early life inputs such as infant nutrition and, more generally, parenting practices. A key focus of the Center is to generate knowledge to inform policy in the domain of infant nutrition and child development, and through this contribute to improving the lives of young children and their families.
LRF CEB team
From left: Ingvild Almås, LRF CEB Director; Tilman Eymess, Senior Researcher; Devon Spika, Postdoctoral Researcher; Abdoul-Aziz Abdoulaye Amadou, Predoctoral Fellow.
Photos: © Markus Forte, all rights reserved
How LRF CEB describes its work
Early childhood conditions have long-lasting consequences for later life economic and social well-being. One key early life input is nutrition. Breastfeeding is recognized as providing all the nutrients a baby needs in the first months of life, but not all babies are breastfed. Our Ccenter seeks to shed light on the decision-making processes surrounding infant nutrition and the consequences of those decisions.
Early childhood conditions have long-lasting consequences for later life economic and social well-being. One key early life input is nutrition. Breastfeeding is recognized as providing all the nutrients a baby needs in the first months of life, but not all babies are breastfed. Our Ccenter seeks to shed light on the decision-making processes surrounding infant nutrition and the consequences of those decisions.
Other important questions that we focus on in the Center concern how childhood family and school environments affect human capital development, such as educational attainment, choice of field of study and occupation, economic preferences, and earnings.
We seek to answer these questions using pre-existing survey data as well as by conducting our own primary data collections. Professor Almås leads an ongoing research program in Tanzania (Kizazi Kijacho ‘The next generation’) which includes a large-scale RCT randomized controlled trial investigating the effect of parenting and cash transfer programs on child health and development, as well as a nationally representative cohort study with an integrated infant nutrition intervention.
Prof. Ingvild Almås
Director, LRF CEB
“Our Center adds to the consortium by bringing the ‘economist’s toolbox’: We have expertise in causal inference and measurement of key decision-making parameters, and will use these tools to generate knowledge about behavioral aspects of infant nutrition and breastfeeding, and the effect of possible policies.”
Photo: © Markus Forte, all rights reserved
Additional to its own projects, LRF CEB will come together with the other LRF Research Centers on GHMRC collaborations and interdisciplinary, multi-center projects.
Cross-center, interdisciplinary collaborations via the GHMRC
LRF CEB and LRF NGN: ‘Fathers, Fatherhood Norms, and Breastfeeding’
Stay tuned for news on upcoming projects
Vision for the GHMRC
Our vision for the GHMRC is a unique platform facilitating transdisciplinary dialogue on the topic of human milk, lactation, and broader infant nutrition.
Value of the GHMRC
The GHMRC allows each Center to tap into a wealth of expertise on different facets of breastfeeding and infant nutrition. From the role of individual milk components to the importance of lactation hormones. Our exchanges within the network strengthen the scientific foundations of our work. The GHMRC acts as an incubator for research ideas and collaborations that would in all likelihood never otherwise have occurred.
Discover more about LRF CEB
LRF CEB research vision
The Center’s vision is to build a holistic understanding of decision-making, market forces, and the cost-benefits of breastfeeding, to ultimately guide policy formation and interventions to improve the well-being of children, families, and society.
LRF CEB aims to achieve its vision by:
• establishing a world-leading research center focused on the social and market dynamics of breastfeeding and infant nutrition, keeping questions that are especially relevant to low- and middle-income countries front and center,
• developing core infrastructure and expertise to sustain long-term projects (or inquiries/studies) with major translational impact, and
• rapidly translating scientific discoveries into practice through collaboration with expert partners and by disseminating key findings to key stakeholders in child nutrition and child health (i.e., the scientific community, clinical practitioners, policymakers, and consumers).