Research Catalog

Title

Does undernutrition respond to incomes and prices? : dominance tests for Indonesia / Martin Ravallion.

Author

Ravallion, Martin.

Publication

Washington, D.C. : World Bank, c1991.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

vii, 34 p. : ill.; 28 cm.

Summary

Recent evidence suggests that food energy intakes are less responsive to incomes of the poor than was once thought. However, it is not intakes per se that there is concern about, but undernutrition. Two facts have long confounded assessments of impacts on undernutrition: individual nutrient requirements vary in a generally unobserved way, and intakes are observed with error. By modelling observed intake distributions econometrically, straightforward stochastic dominance tests can permit robust qualitative inferences. An application to Indonesia in the mid-1980s indicates that regional differences in energy intake distributions are influenced by average income levels, intra-regional inequalities, and local prices of staple food-grains, all with unambiquous effects on undernutrition. The results suggest that any adverse effects on inequality of a growth process would need to be large to outweigh the desirable effect on undernutrition. Plausible effects on rual incomes are insufficient to outweigh adverse effects on undernutrition of higher rice prices.

Series Statement

LSMS working paper, 0253-4517 ; no. 82

Uniform Title

LSMS working papers no. 82.

Subject

Malnutrition > Indonesia > Econometric models

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 33-34).

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

ISBN

0821318837

LCCN

^^^91014825^

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library