an interview to confess that when first given this request he didn’t
see any connection between children and development.
But shortly afterwards, Hans went to Harvard to visit his old
professor Schumpeter. While there, he heard a lecture given by
Nevin Scrimshaw, at the time a young nutritionist at MIT. The
lecture was reporting research on malnutrition among pregnant
women and young children and the long-run effects on the physical
and mental development of the children. Hans Singer described his
reaction. The findings of this study hit him like “a bolt of
lightning.” Nutrition for children was amongst the most basic of
human investments, with life-long effects on human productivity.
Even more important, if the opportunity for these early investments
in nutrition were missed, there would be no second chance. There
would be lifelong damage. Investment in children is central to
development.
As soon as Singer got back to New York, he went to see Maurice
Pate to express his willingness to take on the project. Maurice Pate
was pleased – but insisted on checking carefully that Hans saw the
importance of children before agreeing that he should do the work.
Hans is best known in development for his work on what is known
as the Prebisch-Singer thesis on the long-run terms of trade. In fact,
Hans put aside his work on trade for several months, in order to
prepare to produce his pioneering study for UNICEF on “The Role
of Children in Economic Development” (Singer, 1947). Low
productivity in human investment in developing countries was due
in part to malnutrition in early childhood. As Singer later put it, “An
invitation to the banquet of life is not very appealing when the
menu consists of a forty per cent chance of surviving birth and
childhood, followed by forty or forty five percent rachitic and
mentally retarded years of near starvation.”
15(^15) This account draws on my own interview and discussions with Hans as well as
on the excellent account in Shaw, D. J. (2002). Sir Hans Singer: The Life and Work of
a Development Economist. London: Palgrave-Macmillan, pp. 144-147. Interestingly,
there is no mention of this study in the otherwise excellent history of UNICEF -
Black, M. (1986). Children and the Nations. UNICEF New York, printed in
Adelaide.