Economics of Micronutrient Malnutrition

Micronutrient malnutrition is a serious public health problem, especially in developing countries. Hence, evaluating the nutritional impacts of market and policy changes requires more than just a calorie focus. This work extends the traditional perspective and analyzes the effects of income, food price, and sociodemographic developments on vitamin and mineral adequacies at the household level. The author proposes two approaches to estimate income and price elasticities of nutrient consumption and presents a procedure for assessing the nutrition situation in populations based on food consumption data. Using both approaches demand models are applied in two empirical studies with data from rural East Africa and Malawi. Results suggest that the nutritional status is highly income-responsive. Price elasticities are lower in absolute values, albeit with notable differences between nutrients. Policy implications are discussed.

Autorentext

The Author: Olivier Ecker received his M.Sc. degree and doctorate in Agricultural Economics at the University of Hohenheim (Germany). During his Ph.D. research, the author worked as research associate with the chair of International Agricultural Trade and Food Security at the Department for Agricultural Economics and Social Sciences in the Tropics and Subtropics of the University of Hohenheim.

Inhalt
Contents: Economics Micronutrient malnutrition Food security Sub-Saharan Africa Malawi Tanzania Rwanda Uganda Food and nutrient demand Income and price elasticity Deficiency Calories Iron Zinc Vitamin A Undernourishment Quadratic almost ideal demand system (QUAIDS) Regression Nutritional Assessment Dietary patterns Bioavailability Household data Food consumption 24-hour dietary recall Development policy Agriculture Rural Econometrics.