Determinants of Cognitive Development in Deprived Environments: Evidence from the West Bank

这一跨学科项目的总体目标是查明学校教育、营养不良、健康不良和创伤对西岸巴勒斯坦人口儿童的认知发展和学习效率的因果影响。我们的项目汇集了以色列、巴勒斯坦和德国的科学家，他们在认知心理学、公共卫生、教育和卫生经济学方面具有互补的专业知识。图1显示了我们用来得出假设的概念框架的图形表示，随后使用认知测试和在该项目第一阶段从大约6,000名5至9年级的巴勒斯坦学生及其家人以及学校校长收集的访谈数据进行分析。具体的研究问题将在工作计划部分加以说明。该项目的合作伙伴在国际和跨学科合作方面分享了广泛的经验。近东救济工程处营养和健康研究所所长齐亚德·阿卜丁将提供专门知识，研究西岸儿童和青少年的营养不良、虐待、应激障碍和健康问题。伍珀塔尔大学（UW）卫生经济学与管理学教授Hendrik j<e:1> rges在教育和心理测量以及学校教育对认知发展的影响方面是一位专家，他广泛研究了教育与健康之间的因果关系，并提供了利用最先进的计量经济学技术从观察数据中识别因果关系的专业知识。

The overarching objective of this interdisciplinary project is to identify the causal effects of schooling, malnutrition, bad health, and trauma on the cognitive development and learning productivity among children within the Palestinian population of the West Bank. Our project brings together Israeli, Palestinian and German scientists with complementary expertise in cognitive psychology, public health, and education and health economics. Fig. 1 shows a graphical representation of the conceptual framework we use to derive hypotheses that are subsequently analyzed using the cognitive test and interview data collected from approximately 6,000 Palestinian students in grades 5 to 9 and their families as well as school principals during the first phase of this project. Specific research questions will be explicated in the work program section. The partners in this project share wide experience in international and interdisciplinary collaboration. Ziad Abdeen, Director of the AQ Nutrition and Health Research Institute, will provide expertise in studying malnutrition, maltreatment, stress disorders and health among children and adolescents in the West Bank. Sorel Cahan, Associate Professor of Educational and Psychological Measurement at HU, is an expert in educational and psychological measurement and schooling effects on cognitive development Hendrik Jürges, Professor of Health Economics and Management at the University of Wuppertal (UW), has worked extensively on the causal link between education and health and provides expertise in the identification of causal effects from observational data using state-of-the-art econometric techniques.