The impacts of changing affluence on diets and demand patterns for agricultural commodities

Unpublished …, 2008

This paper analyzes the household level impact of an increase in price of major tradable staple foods in a cross section of developing countries, using nationally representative household surveys. We find that, in the short term, poorer households and households with limited asset endowments and access to agricultural inputs will be hit the hardest by the price shock. Given the ample degree of heterogeneity among households and among the poor, the analysis emphasizes the importance of meaningful policy research to go beyond average impacts to look at how access to assets and inputs, livelihood strategies and other key household characteristics drive the magnitude and distribution of the effects of the price increases.

Food and nutrition bulletin, 2011

The recent rise in agricultural commodity prices has been dramatic, and food prices are likely to follow an upward trend, at least in the medium-term. Moreover, the recent financial crisis has also lowered incomes and increased food prices. Not only does this reduce dietary quality, but expenditures for health, sanitation, and education will decline, all of which will have a detrimental effect on health and nutrition outcomes. To provide some perspectives on the role of major socioeconomic factors in driving health and nutrition outcomes. We use demand elasticity parameters estimated from household-level survey data to simulate an increase in food prices, which is then mapped into energy and nutrient intakes. Furthermore, we also use household-level data to analyze the implications of unequal intrahousehold distribution of food for the nutritional status of adult women and female children. A 50% increase in food prices results in a decrease in energy intake of 5% to 15% and in a dec...

SURG Journal, 2012

With the recent financial crisis and its enduring fallout, questions surrounding the state of global food security have become more pressing. A key element influencing the nutritional status of the world’s poor is price behavior within global food commodity markets. In recent decades, food commodity markets have experienced both significant price increases, and an increase in volatility. These price trends have had significant impacts on the diversity of diets in impoverished households worldwide, which in turn has impacted nutrition and health. This paper will discuss the causes behind recent trends in food commodity prices, and the extent of their impact on food security and nutrition. Specifically, it will address the impact of food price increases and the uncertainty induced by food price volatility on household food consumption and nutrition. Micronutrient intake is the focus of the nutritional discussion of this work, and variations of consumption behavior in various regions a...

International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 2014

Background: Prices are an important determinant of food choices. Consequently, food price policies (subsidies and/or taxes) are proposed to improve the nutritional quality of diets. The aim of the present study was to explore the impact of food price policies on the expenditures and nutritional quality of the food baskets chosen by low-and medium-income households. Methods: Experimental economics was used to examine two price manipulations: i) a fruit and vegetable price subsidy named "fruit and vegetables condition"; ii) a healthy-product subsidy coupled with an unhealthy-product tax named "nutrient profile condition". The nutrient profiling system called SAIN,LIM was used. This system classifies each individual food according to its overall nutritional quality which then allows for a food item to be taxed or subsidized. Women from low-(n = 95) and medium-incomes (n = 33) selected a daily food basket, first, at current prices and then at manipulated prices. The redistributive effects of experimental conditions were assessed by comparing the extent of savings induced by subsidies and of costs generated by the tax on the two income groups. Energy density (kcal/100 g), free sugars (% energy) and the mean adequacy ratio (MAR) were used as nutritional quality indicators. Results: At baseline (before price manipulations), low-income women selected less expensive and less healthy baskets than medium-income ones. After price manipulations expenditures for both income group decreased significantly, whereas, the nutritional quality improved (energy density decreased, the MAR increased). Additionally, the redistributive effects were less favourable for low-income women and their nutritional quality improvements from baseline were significantly lower. Conclusion: Low-income women derived fewer financial and nutritional benefits from implemented food subsidies and taxes than medium-income women. This outcome suggests that food price policies may improve diet quality while increasing socio-economic inequalities in nutrition.

Journal of Food …, 2005

2003

This study assesses whether income constraints inhibit spending on fruits and vegetables among low-income households. If this is the case, then it is hypothesized that the distribution of expenditures on fruits and vegetables by low-income households should be stochastically dominated by the distribution of expenditures on these same food items by other households. Moreover, it must be the case that

Proceedings of the International Food and …, 2001

Preventive Medicine, 2007

Wealthier households spent more money on food compared to the poorest households, especially on buying food at supermarkets. Individuals from the poorest households were dominant in eating grains and roots and less likely to consume a variety of food groups, including pulses, dairy, eggs and fruits, and vegetables. Individuals from the poorest households were also less likely to achieve adequate dietary diversity. Deliberate policies on diet and nutrition are required to address socioeconomic inequalities in food purchasing practices.

2008

The main symptom of the world food crisis has been a large upsurge in international prices for the main staples foods, principally corn, wheat, rice, and soybeans over the last three years. However, this general effect is transmitted into domestic food prices in highly uneven ways across countries depending on the way markets work and on government price policies. It has highly differentiated impacts across categories of poor people depending on their sources of income, their consumption patterns, and their participation to markets. There are also short-term effects whereby a price movement is a mere change in the monetary value for what people were doing in production and consumption before the shock. But there are longer-term effects when opportunities are seized through supply response in production and negative impacts are mitigated through substitutions in consumption. In order to design policy responses, it is important to measure these effects. We need to know who is gaining and who is losing, and by how much. We need to know what are the channels through which these effects are occurring. And we need to know both the short term and the longer-term effects.

Review of Development Economics, 2011

The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.