the effect of the food stamp program on nutrient intake i introduction one of the goals of the food stamp program as stated in the preamble of the law is to ensure that low income households have the opportunity to attain a nutritionally adequate diet previous economic studies evaluating the effects of food stamp income on nutrient intake have typically found a positive usually small correlation between the receipt of food stamps and nutrition two recent papers by devaney and moffitt 1991 and horton and campbell 1991 reach very positive conclusions concerning the effect of income in general papers from the nutrition literature generally find positive but weak and often insignificant effects of income on nutrition we employ information on two groups of low income people and find slightly different results for the two groups but very different results from many of the other studies for a sample of rural families taken from data from the rural income maintenance experiment we find almost no effect of food stamp income or evidence of selection bias 1 however for a sample of elderly people from the food stamp cashout project we find strong evidence that self selection into the food stamp program is highly correlated with attaining nutritional adequacy and that controlling for the self selection food stamp income and other income have a negative effect on nutrition we re examine the relationship between food stamp income and the nutrient intake of the poor and improve upon the existing literature in several important ways first it is possible that the positive correlation between the receipt of food stamps and nutrition is not a direct causal link but rather is the result of other factors affecting both for example in one of the samples examined in this paper only 50 percent of those eligible actually apply for and receive food stamps it could be the case that those who care more about nutrition are at the same time more likely to apply for and receive food stamps and more likely to maintain a nutritionally adequate diet these possible self selection problems can be disentangled from possible direct effects of food stamp income on nutrition using estimation procedures which correct for selection bias another issue which our research addresses is that the level of one nutrient may be correlated with the levels of other nutrients this may occur either because individuals who care about nutrition may be more likely to attain adequate levels of all nutrients or because combinations of nutrients occur naturally in foods we posit a multi equation model of the levels of nutrients and allow the disturbances in each equation to be correlated none of the previous studies considered this correlation finally we recognize the fact that above some level extra nutrients are superfluous if an individual has attained a nutritionally adequate diet then whether or not food stamp income allows him or her to consume more nutrients is irrelevant we are primarily interested in therefore whether or not an individual attains an adequate level of a nutrient rather than the absolute amount of a nutrient consumed in previous studies devaney and moffitt 1991 had addressed simultaneously the issues of selection bias and the superfluity of nutrients above some level the finding that food stamp income actually lowers nutrient intake ceteris paribus is a novel result for studies of the food stamp program but it would not be novel in the literature on nutrition in less developed countries pitt and rosenzweig 1985 behrman and deolalikar 1987 it is reasonable to believe that as income increases households employ relatively more money than time in household production this is silberberg s 1985 explanation for decreased efficiency in producing pure nutrients in other words as income increases people spend less time preparing meals and more money on foods which are easier to prepare if as is often the case foods which are more convenient to prepare are less nutritious than foods which require a lot of time to prepare then our result is not surprising

impact of income on nutrient intakes implications for undernourishment and obesity the relationship between income and nutrient intake is explored nonparametric panel and quantile regressions are used engle curves for calories fat and protein are approximately linear in logs with carbohydrate intakes exhibiting diminishing elasticities as incomes increase elasticities range from 0 10 to 0 25 with fat having the highest elasticities countries in higher quantiles have lower elasticities than those in lower quantiles results predict significant cumulative increases in calorie consumption which are increasingly composed of fats though policies aimed at poverty alleviation and economic growth may assuage hunger and malnutrition they may also exacerbate problems associated with obesity

crises food prices and the income elasticity of micronutrients estimates from indonesia the 2008 global food price crisis and more recent food price spikes have led to a greater focus on policies and programs to cushion the effects of such shocks on poverty and malnutrition analysis of the income elasticities of micronutrients and their changes during food price crises can shed light on the potential effectiveness of cash transfer and nutrition supplement programs this article examines these issues using data from two cross sectional household surveys in indonesia taken before 1996 and soon after 1999 the 1997 98 economic crisis which led to a sharp increase in food prices first using nonparametric and regression methods the article examines how the income elasticity of calories from starchy staples as a share of total calories differs between the two survey rounds second the article estimates income elasticities of important nutrients in indonesia the analysis finds that although summary measures such as the income elasticity of the starchy staple ratio might not change during crises this stability masks important differences across individual nutrients in particular income elasticities of some key micronutrients such as iron calcium and vitamin b1 are significantly higher in a crisis year than in a normal year yet the income elasticities of others such as vitamin c remain close to zero these results suggest that cash transfer programs might be even more effective during crises to ensure the consumption of essential micronutrients but to ensure that all key micronutrients are consumed nutrition supplement programs are also likely required jel classification codes i12 o12 d12 e31 keywords income elasticity crisis prices micronutrients vitamin c starchy staple ratio

a probit latent variable model of nutrition information and dietary fiber intake nutrition information and intake data for a sample of u s household meal planners are used to estimate the effects of fiber specific information on dietary fiber intake the information variables are measured using survey questions on fiber content of foods attitude toward consuming fiber rich foods and awareness of fiber health links the evidence confirms the influence of nutrition information on fiber intake household income meal planner age smoking status vegetarian status race and ethnicity are major determinants of both information and intake education exerts a sizable intake effect by enhancing the information level direct and indirect effects of exogenous variables are reported

energy retrofitting of urban buildings a socio spatial analysis of three mid sized italian cities abstract the current paper analyses the issue of energy retrofitting of buildings in italian cities in particular a mixed method approach is used combining the socio spatial analysis of data on the most relevant policy tool namely tax deduction together with qualitative analysis of three case studies of middle sized cities the results show that on the one hand tax deduction has not been very effective in promoting a deep renovation of buildings and it may exacerbate already existing inequalities on the other hand it emerges that progress in eco retrofit of buildings depends mainly on creation of new intermediators and intermediation incentives they are increasingly necessary in an urban panorama that has become inevitably polycentric

determinants of the intrahousehold allocation of food in the rural philippines this study shows that the opportunity cost of time for husbands and wives can affect the intrahousehold distribution of food in a developing country equations which explain the relative allocation of calories within households were estimated for husbands wives and children with data for the rural philippines the estimating equation is derivable from both a joint household utility function and a bargaining model because the same households were included in the four survey rounds the various observations for a given individual were averaged for each variable in the estimation procedure wages were estimated using the heckman approach

substitution between goods and leisure in a developing country the paper explores the substitutability between goods female leisure and male leisure we find that goods and leisure are not separable we then adapt the almost ideal demand system aids to include leisure in the system in the same manner as commodities the model is not sensitive to variations in the assumption of total time available for each individual s work and leisure results from sri lanka indicate the marginal propensity to consume leisure is quite high especially in rural areas this finding has important implications for transfer programs designed to raise food consumption a somewhat surprising complementarity between male and female leisure was also observed a number of goods were found to be complements to both male and female leisure

program interventions intrahousehold distribution and the welfare of individuals modelling household behavior abstract in this essay the implications for the intrahousehold distribution of resources derived from economic models of household behavior that treat the household as maximizing a single welfare function are reviewed particular attention is paid to the within family allocation of time and food and to the effects of these resources on the schooling earnings and health status of individuals as they are affected by direct food intervention and female employment schemes and price altering policies empirical applications are provided from data sets from india indonesia and the philippines to illustrate the power and limitations of such models for illuminating household interventions and for placing restrictions on data

biomass and ccs the influence of technical change the combination of bioenergy production and carbon capture and storage technologies beccs provides an opportunity to create negative emissions of co2 in biofuel production however high capture costs reduce profitability this paper investigates carbon price uncertainty and technological uncertainty through a real option approach we compare the cases of early and delayed ccs deployments an early technological progress may arise from aggressive r d and pilot project programs but the expected cost reduction remains uncertain we show that this approach results in lower emissions and more rapid investment returns although these returns will not fully materialise until after 2030 in a second set of simulations we apply an incentive that prioritises sequestered emissions rather than avoided emissions in other words this economic instrument does not account for co2 emissions from the ccs implementation itself but rewards all the sequestered emissions in contrast with technological innovations this subsidy is certain for the investor the resulting investment level is higher and the project may become profitable before 2030 negative emission in bioethanol production does not seem to be a short term solution in our framework whatever the carbon price drift

variety prices and food status in low income households the basic premise of this paper is that a household receives utility directly from the status of a food composite good which is created by combining a household s skill and creativity in preparing foods other inputs and the kinds and amounts of foods available we proceed to investigate the factors influencing the demand for and prodcution of this composite good the demand for food status in influenced most by the following characteristics race education houshold size homeownership region of household residence and income direct price effects were minor estimates of a food status production function imply that the production of food status is not much a matter of the quantities of foods consumed but rather the types of food purchased variety and the creativity of the homemaker

food security and health status in the united states food security is defined as access by all times to enough food for an active healthy life this paper explores the relationships between food security and women s self evaluated health status a theoretical model is developed which suggests that our primary interests can be served by estimating health and food security production functions we find that food security has a significant influence on a woman s self evaluated health status however the exact manifestations are difficult to quantify they may be psychological or physiolgical the most food insecure women tend to be poor and less educated tobacco use lack of physical exercise and obesity also weigh heavily good health status

determinants of dietary quality evidence from bangladesh summary whereas a large number of studies have been devoted to analyzing consumer demand for dietary quantity much less attention has been paid to the demand for dietary quality to address this gap in the literature this paper explores the determinants of dietary quality in bangladesh using data from a nationally representative household expenditure survey conducted in 2000 we find that while male education plays a positive role female education has a substantially stronger influence further female household headship is associated with lower dietary quality than male headship thus promoting female education and addressing the unique constraints faced by female headed households with respect to diet quality could be a significant policy instrument for addressing food insecurity in bangladesh

evaluating food plans and poverty thresholds 1987 evaluating food plans and poverty thresholds applied economics vol 19 no 10 pp 1341 1352

demographic variables in demand analysis in this paper the authors discuss five procedures for incorporating demographic variables into theoretically plausible demand systems translating scaling and the gorman reverse gorman and implicit prais houthakker procedures these five procedures are used to incorporate a single demographic variable the number of children in a household into the generalized ces demand system using household budget data for the united kingdom for the period 1966 1972 excerpt

can drought increase total calorie availability the impact of drought on food consumption and the mitigating effects of a conditional cash transfer program abstract this study uses the panel data of a randomized experiment from the mexican progresa program to evaluate the impact of drought on total calorie availability and the mitigating effects of progresa on food consumption in periods of drought drought reduced total expenditures and total food expenditures but increased the total availability of calories this paradox can be explained by the impact of drought on the composition of calories that is it reduced the consumption of expensive calories in such foods as vegetables fruits and animal products but increased calories consumed from cheaper sources such as grains this study finds that progresa can completely mitigate the negative effects of drought on calorie availability from vegetables fruits and other sources however progresa cannot mitigate the impact of drought on calories available from grains the analysis also shows that during drought households who increase their consumption of grains get them mainly from purchased sources rathe

will developing country nutrition improve with income a case study for rural south india aggregate estimates of food expenditure are consistent with such a possibility implying income expenditure elasticities close to one however the high degree of aggregation at which such estimates are made means that the considerable increase in price per nutrient as income increases is ignored and the nutrient elasticities are therefore overstated estimates for a rural south indian sample indicate that this bias is considerable and that the true nutrient elasticities with respect to income may be close to zero

determinants of food consumption in rural sierra leone abstract this paper reports the application of a quadratic expenditure system with demographic variables to the household consumption leisure choice component of a household firm model a system of seven commodities is estimated including five foods non food and leisure appropriate for such a level of disaggregation a demand system is used the quadratic expenditure system which allows for a flexible relationship between full income and commodity expenditures without sacrificing parsimony in parameters demographic data on households are explicitly incorporated into the model allowing for a richer specification than can be achieved by using per capita variables the data are from a cross section survey of households in rural sierra leone price variation exists by region permitting estimation of a complete demand system engel curves are found to be significantly non linear with marginal expenditure on rice the major staple declining with higher income most foods are found to be reasonably price responsive with sizeable own price substitution effects declining with higher income aggregate labor supply is found to be price inelastic

demand for nutrients in india 1993 to 2004 in response to the deaton and dreze 2009 explanation of a downward shift in the calorie engel curve in terms of lower requirements due to health improvements and lower activity levels in india we develop an alternative explanation embedded in a standard demand theory framework with food prices and expenditure as a proxy for income cast in a pivotal role we find robust food price and expenditure effects and shifting food price elasticities there are shifts in demands due to factors other than lower requirements so while the deaton and dreze 2009 explanation is not rejected it is arguable that it is complementary to the demand based explanations

impacts of capital and land constraints on the economics of new livestock technology in western kenya abstract the introduction of new forages and milk marketing improvements was projected to permit even the smallest modeled farms in a western kenya region to adopt dual purpose goats and thereby improve family income and nutrition expanded credit permitted modeled medium and large farms especially to vigorously exploit these innovations credit also expanded income more than did goat management improvements because credit extension assistance marketing improvements and new forages will leave projected incomes of small farmers below those of medium and large farmers in the study region development of off farm jobs may still be necessary to supplement the incomes of this fast growing group the marginal value of capital for medium and large farmers with new livestock technology was high this suggests that government subsidized credit might be unnecessary with proper infrastructural and legal support private capital markets might develop as new livestock technology and marketing improvements expand the demand for borrowing

information endogeneity and consumer health behaviour application to dietary intakes due to heightened public health interest a growing number of consumer health behaviour studies are focusing on the effect of health information on the demand for health inputs and outcomes many of these studies however have overlooked the potential endogeneity of information variables stemming from unobserved individual heterogeneity due to simultaneity bias ignoring endogeneity may lead to inaccurate estimates of informational effects on health behaviour using dietary intake data for fat saturated fat cholesterol and fibre this paper illustrates the pitfalls of treating health information related to these nutrients as exogenous variables in their demand equations in most of the estimated models the exogeneity of information is statistically rejected when the information variables are treated as exogenous variables their effects on dietary intakes are underestimated the estimated effects of key intake determinants such as income education ethnicity and race are also different in such a

estimating a household production function heterogeneity the demand for health inputs and their effects on birth weight the household production literature emphasizes that technical or biological processes condition input selection by households in their production activities along with prices and income exogenous variations in health to the extent that they are perceived by individuals heterogeneity lead to correlations between inputs and health outcomes that cannot be used to derive causal conclusions therefore estimates of health technology must be obtained from a behavioral model in which health inputs are themselves choices consistent estimates are reported of the effect of endogenous inputs such as medical care smoking and fertility on birth weight and fetal growth in the presence of health heterogeneity

the intrahousehold demand for nutrients in rural south india individual estimates fixed effects and permanent income good estimates of nutrient intake responses to prices and income are very useful for the evaluation of the numerous efforts to improve nutrition in many developing countries through pricesubsidy and income generation policies we discuss three problems in standard estimates of these responses and then illustrate their implications for nutrient demand relations for a poor sample from rural south india 1 intra household nutrient allocations usually are ignored in this case nutrient intakes for females systematically have algebraically lower price elasticities than do those for males which may leave the females particularly vulnerable at times of food shortages 2 unobserved fixed effects may bias the estimates of responses to observed variables in this case not only the community fixed effects on which the previous literature has focused but also household and individual fixed effects are important failure to control for them results in substantial algebraically upward biases in many estimated price responses 3 most previous studies use current instead of permanent income which a priori may account for the low estimated income elasticities in this case however the use of permanent income does not change the conclusion that the nutrient intakes responses to income are quite small

more evidence on nutrition demand income seems overrated and women s schooling underemphasized abstract malnutrition is widespread in the developing world controversy continues concerning the roles of income household size and women s schooling on nutrient demand empirical estimates for nicaragua suggest that income elasticities are small and inversely associated with income levels there are some economies of scale in household size the elasticity for women s schooling is higher than those for income or household size and women s backgrounds are important the results cast doubt on the strong emphasis the world bank and others have placed on income and suggest that schooling may be working through tastes not only through productivity

towards a theory of famine relief policy abstract this paper examines how famine mortality is related to the distribution of food consumption a theoretical model is proposed of how individual survival chances are affected by changes in consumption uncertainty in survival prospects arises from the errors made by any observer in assessing health at given current consumption the theory is used to explore two policy issues in famine relief the choice of budgetary rules for allocating emergency aid and the case for price stabilization policies during famines applications to data for two famines in south asia suggest that successful price stabilization would have had substantial benefits in reducing mortality