IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/aaea16/235760.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Food Subsidies and Nutritional Status: Evidence from ICRISAT Data

Author

Listed:
  • Bhagowalia, Priya
  • Chandna, Arjita

Abstract

This paper attempts to assess if provision of subsidized food via India’s largest safety net, the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS), has improved calorie availability in dry land areas of India. Changes in relative prices may increase calorie intakes from the subsidized commodities, or induce a substitution away from inexpensive and calorie rich foods to more expensive foods. We use ICRISAT data from 2010-2012 to examine the impact of rice & wheat subsidies on calorie availability and compare it with equivalent increases in income from any other source. Our results suggest that food subsidies have a modest but positive impact on calorie intakes of households, but these differ by income group. Due to the subsidy, households increase calories from both subsidized and expensive sources of calories viz. meat, sugar and oils. Crop production affects calorie availability. We also find that that the in-kind transfer seems to be less effective than equivalent increases in income

Suggested Citation

  • Bhagowalia, Priya & Chandna, Arjita, 2016. "Food Subsidies and Nutritional Status: Evidence from ICRISAT Data," 2016 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Boston, Massachusetts 235760, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:aaea16:235760
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.235760
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/235760/files/BC%20paper_%20AAEA_May252016.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.235760?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Behrman, Jere R & Deolalikar, Anil B, 1987. "Will Developing Country Nutrition Improve with Income? A Case Study for Rural South India," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 95(3), pages 492-507, June.
    2. Hidrobo, Melissa & Hoddinott, John & Peterman, Amber & Margolies, Amy & Moreira, Vanessa, 2014. "Cash, food, or vouchers? Evidence from a randomized experiment in northern Ecuador," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 144-156.
    3. Pitt, Mark M, 1983. "Food Preferences and Nutrition in Rural Bangladesh," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 65(1), pages 105-114, February.
    4. Kochar, Anjini, 2005. "Can Targeted Food Programs Improve Nutrition? An Empirical Analysis of India's Public Distribution System," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 54(1), pages 203-235, October.
    5. Jha, Raghbendra & Gaiha, Raghav & Pandey, Manoj K. & Kaicker, Nidhi, 2013. "Food subsidy, income transfer and the poor: A comparative analysis of the public distribution system in India's states," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 35(6), pages 887-908.
    6. Abdulai, Awudu & Aubert, Dominique, 2004. "A cross-section analysis of household demand for food and nutrients in Tanzania," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 31(1), pages 67-79, July.
    7. J. Gibson & S. Rozelle, 2002. "How Elastic is Calorie Demand? Parametric, Nonparametric, and Semiparametric Results for Urban Papua New Guinea," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(6), pages 23-46.
    8. Ulimwengu, John M. & Roberts, Cleo & Randriamamonjy, Josee, 2012. "Resource-Rich Yet Malnourished: Analysis of the demand for food nutrients in the Democratic Republic of Congo," IFPRI discussion papers 1154, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    9. Ahmed, Akhter U. & Quisumbing, Agnes R. & Nasreen, Mahbuba & Hoddinott, John F. & Bryan, Elizabeth, 2009. "Comparing Food and Cash Transfers to the Ultra-Poor in Bangladesh," Research reports 163, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    10. Raghav Gaiha & Raghbendra Jha & Vani S. Kulkarni, 2010. "Prices, Expenditure and Nutrition in India," ASARC Working Papers 2010-15, The Australian National University, Australia South Asia Research Centre.
    11. Moffitt, Robert, 1989. "Estimating the Value of an In-Kind Transfer: The Case of Food Stamps," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 57(2), pages 385-409, March.
    12. Jere R. Behrman & Anil B. Deolalikar, 1990. "The Intrahousehold Demand for Nutrients in Rural South India: Individual Estimates, Fixed Effects, and Permanent Income," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 25(4), pages 665-696.
    13. Ahluwalia, Deepak, 1993. "Public distribution of food in India : Coverage, targeting and leakages," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 33-54, February.
    14. Basole, Amit & Basu, Deepankar, 2015. "Fuelling Calorie Intake Decline: Household-Level Evidence from Rural India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 82-95.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jumrani, Jaya, 2023. "How responsive are nutrients in India? Some recent evidence," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    2. Biswabhusan Bhuyan & Bimal Kishore Sahoo & Damodar Suar, 2020. "Quantile Regression Analysis of Predictors of Calorie Demand in India: An Implication for Sustainable Development Goals," Journal of Quantitative Economics, Springer;The Indian Econometric Society (TIES), vol. 18(4), pages 825-859, December.
    3. Mohammad Ali & Kira M. Villa & Janak Joshi, 2018. "Health and hunger: nutrient response to income depending on caloric availability in Nepal," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 49(5), pages 611-621, September.
    4. Tian, Xu & Yu, Xiaohua, 2015. "Using semiparametric models to study nutrition improvement and dietary change with different indices: The case of China," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 67-81.
    5. Chandana Maitra & Sriram Shankar & D.S. Prasada Rao, 2016. "Income Poor or Calorie Poor? Who should get the Subsidy?," Discussion Papers Series 564, School of Economics, University of Queensland, Australia.
    6. Emmanuel Skoufias & Vincenzo Di Maro & Teresa González‐Cossío & Sonia Rodríguez Ramírez, 2009. "Nutrient consumption and household income in rural Mexico," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 40(6), pages 657-675, November.
    7. Santeramo, Fabio Gaetano & Shabnam, Nadia, 2015. "The income-elasticity of calories, macro and micro nutrients: What is the literature telling us?," MPRA Paper 63754, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Nolan Miller & Robert Jensen, 2015. "Do Consumer Price Subsidies Really Improve Nutrition?," Working Papers id:7494, eSocialSciences.
    9. Kaushal, Neeraj & Muchomba, Felix M., 2015. "How Consumer Price Subsidies affect Nutrition," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 25-42.
    10. Indranil Dutta & Shruti Kapoor & Prasanta K. Pattanaik, 2020. "Nutrient consumption in India: Evidence from a village study," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(3), pages 855-877, August.
    11. Ecker, Olivier & Qaim, Matin, 2011. "Analyzing Nutritional Impacts of Policies: An Empirical Study for Malawi," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 412-428, March.
    12. McCullough, Ellen & Zhen, Chen & Shin, Soye & Lu, Meichen & Arsenault, Joanne, 2022. "The role of food preferences in determining diet quality for Tanzanian consumers," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    13. Neeraj Kaushal & Felix Muchomba, 2013. "How Consumer Price Subsidies affect Nutrition," NBER Working Papers 19404, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Debbie L Humphries & Jere R Behrman & Benjamin T Crookston & Kirk A Dearden & Whitney Schott & Mary E Penny & on behalf of the Young Lives Determinants and Consequences of Child Growth Project Team, 2014. "Households across All Income Quintiles, Especially the Poorest, Increased Animal Source Food Expenditures Substantially during Recent Peruvian Economic Growth," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(11), pages 1-13, November.
    15. Masiero, Silvia, 2015. "Redesigning the Indian Food Security System through E-Governance: The Case of Kerala," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 126-137.
    16. Robert T. Jensen & Nolan H. Miller, 2010. "Do Consumer Price Subsidies Really Improve Nutrition?," NBER Working Papers 16102, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Nilanjana Roy, 2001. "A semiparametric analysis of calorie response to income change across income groups and gender," The Journal of International Trade & Economic Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(1), pages 93-109.
    18. Bouis, Howarth E. & Novenario-Reese, Mary Jane G., 1997. "The determinants of demand for micronutrients," FCND discussion papers 32, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    19. Xiaohua Yu & Satoru Shimokawa, 2016. "Nutritional impacts of rising food prices in African countries: a review," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 8(5), pages 985-997, October.
    20. Ecker, Olivier & Qaim, Matin, 2008. "Income and Price Elasticities of Food Demand and Nutrient Consumption in Malawi," 2008 Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2008, Orlando, Florida 6349, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Consumer/Household Economics; Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety; International Development;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:aaea16:235760. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aaeaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.