IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/gausfs/340816.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Market Food Environments and Child Nutrition

Author

Listed:
  • Vivien Huelsen
  • Makaiko Gonapanyanja Khonje
  • Matin Qaim

Abstract

Child malnutrition and low-quality diets remain widespread public health problems in sub-Saharan Africa. Providing access to nutritious and healthy foods for all is key, but it is not at all clear how this can be achieved in various local contexts. Here, we analyze the role of markets and food environments for child diets and nutrition in Malawi along an urban-rural continuum. We develop a new methodology to characterize food environments in terms of the variety of fresh and processed foods available in local market settings. Geocoded data of market food variety are combined with individual-level child diet and anthropometric data collected through a household survey. We find large differences in food environments and diet and nutrition outcomes between urban, rural, and remote locations. The spatially-explicit analysis shows that market food variety is positively associated with child dietary diversity and negatively associated with child stunting, even after controlling for household wealth, own farm production, and other confounding factors. Our findings stress the importance of improving the functioning of markets for nutritious foods, especially in rural areas. Conceptually, we add novelty to the literature on measuring food environments.

Suggested Citation

  • Vivien Huelsen & Makaiko Gonapanyanja Khonje & Matin Qaim, 2024. "Market Food Environments and Child Nutrition," Sustainable Food Systems Discussion Papers 340816, Georg-August-Universitaet Goettingen, Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development.
  • Handle: RePEc:ags:gausfs:340816
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.340816
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/340816/files/SFS_DP_004.pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.340816?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. Jacoby, Hanan G. & Minten, Bart, 2009. "On measuring the benefits of lower transport costs," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(1), pages 28-38, May.
    2. Kibrewossen Abay & Kalle Hirvonen, 2017. "Does Market Access Mitigate the Impact of Seasonality on Child Growth? Panel Data Evidence from Northern Ethiopia," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(9), pages 1414-1429, September.
    3. Zanello, Giacomo & Shankar, Bhavani & Poole, Nigel, 2019. "Buy or make? Agricultural production diversity, markets and dietary diversity in Afghanistan," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 1-1.
    4. Debela, B.L. & Demmler, K.M. & Klasen, S. & Qaim, M., 2018. "Supermarket purchase and child nutritional outcomes in urban Kenya," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 277078, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    5. repec:bla:devpol:v:26:y:2008:i:2:p:227-243 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Otterbach, Steffen & Oskorouchi, Hamid Reza & Rogan, Michael & Qaim, Matin, 2021. "Using Google data to measure the role of Big Food and fast food in South Africa’s obesity epidemic," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    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. Hülsen, Vivien & Khonje, Makaiko G. & Qaim, Matin, 2024. "Market food environments and child nutrition," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    2. Isaac Bonuedi & Lukas Kornher & Nicolas Gerber, 2022. "Agricultural seasonality, market access, and food security in Sierra Leone," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 14(2), pages 471-494, April.
    3. Tarek Ben Hassen & Hamid El Bilali & Mohammed Al-Maadeed, 2020. "Agri-Food Markets in Qatar: Drivers, Trends, and Policy Responses," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-31, May.
    4. Usman, Muhammed A. & Haile, Mekbib G., 2022. "Market access, household dietary diversity and food security: Evidence from Eastern Africa," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    5. Valeria Borsellino & Emanuele Schimmenti & Hamid El Bilali, 2020. "Agri-Food Markets towards Sustainable Patterns," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-35, March.
    6. Muhammed Abdella Usman & Daniel Callo-Concha, 2021. "Does market access improve dietary diversity and food security? Evidence from Southwestern Ethiopian smallholder coffee producers," Agricultural and Food Economics, Springer;Italian Society of Agricultural Economics (SIDEA), vol. 9(1), pages 1-21, December.
    7. Ana Deaconu & Peter R. Berti & Donald C. Cole & Geneviève Mercille & Malek Batal, 2021. "Market Foods, Own Production, and the Social Economy: How Food Acquisition Sources Influence Nutrient Intake among Ecuadorian Farmers and the Role of Agroecology in Supporting Healthy Diets," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-22, April.
    8. Anjali Adukia & Sam Asher & Paul Novosad, 2020. "Educational Investment Responses to Economic Opportunity: Evidence from Indian Road Construction," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 12(1), pages 348-376, January.
    9. Vandercasteelen, Joachim & Beyene, Seneshaw Tamru & Minten, Bart & Swinnen, Johan, 2018. "Cities and agricultural transformation in Africa: Evidence from Ethiopia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 383-399.
    10. Lara Cockx & Liesbeth Colen & Joachim De Weerdt & Sergio Gomez Y Paloma, 2019. "Urbanization as a driver of changing food demand in Africa: Evidence from rural-urban migration in Tanzania," JRC Research Reports JRC107918, Joint Research Centre.
    11. Zhenxiong Huang & Hangtian Xu & Jianming Li & Nengsheng Luo, 2020. "Has highway construction narrowed the urban–rural income gap? Evidence from Chinese cities," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 99(3), pages 705-723, June.
    12. Parigi, Marta & Oskorouchi, Hamid R., 2024. "The Effects of Israeli Policies on Palestinians' Basic Needs in the Occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem," IZA Discussion Papers 17176, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. Li, Zhigang & Yu, Xiaohua & Zeng, Yinchu & Holst, Rainer, 2012. "Estimating transport costs and trade barriers in China: Direct evidence from Chinese agricultural traders," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 1003-1010.
    14. Bell, Clive, 2023. "Rural Roads and National Welfare: Are 'Local' Methods of Evaluation Satisfactory?," Working Papers 0740, University of Heidelberg, Department of Economics.
    15. Bachewe, Fantu Nisrane & Hirvonen, Kalle & Minten, Bart & Yimer, Feiruz, 2017. "The rising costs of nutritious foods in Ethiopia," ESSP research notes 67, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    16. Djemaï, Elodie & Clark, Andrew E. & D’Ambrosio, Conchita, 2024. "Take the Highway? Paved roads and well-being in Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).
    17. Zhaohua Zhang & Yuxi Luo & Zhao Zhang & Derrick Robinson & Xin Wang, 2022. "Unraveling the Role of Objective Food Environment in Chinese Elderly’s Diet-Related Diseases Epidemic: Considering Both Healthy Food Accessibility and Diversity," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(21), pages 1-16, October.
    18. Wang, Xu & Zhang, Xiaobo & Xie, Zhuan & Huang, Yiping, 2016. "Roads to innovation: Firm-level evidence from China," IFPRI discussion papers 1542, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    19. Li, Zhigang & Yu, Xiaohua & Zeng, Yinchu, 2011. "Estimating the impact of transport efficiency on trade costs: Evidence from Chinese agricultural traders," 2011 International Congress, August 30-September 2, 2011, Zurich, Switzerland 114384, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    20. Minten, Bart & Tamru, Seneshaw & Engida, Ermias & Kuma, Tadesse, 2013. "Using Evidence in Unraveling Food Supply Chains in Ethiopia: The Supply Chain of Teff from Major Production Areas to Addis Ababa," 2013 Fourth International Conference, September 22-25, 2013, Hammamet, Tunisia 159706, African Association of Agricultural Economists (AAAE).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Agricultural and Food Policy; Community/Rural/Urban Development; Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety; Health Economics and Policy;
    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:gausfs:340816. 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/iagoede.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.