Nutrition Knowledge, Household Coping, and the Demand for Micronutrient-Rich Foods

This study applies both parametric and non-parametric techniques to a new household data set from rural Indonesia to explain previous findings of a reduced-form relationship between nutrition knowledge and child micronutrient status. Households of mothers with and without nutrition knowledge allocate identical budget shares to food; yet, within the food budget, knowledge households allocate substantially larger shares to micronutrient-rich foods and smaller chares to rice than do non-knowledge households. Knowledge households are also less willing to sacrifice consumption of micronutrient-rich foods in the face of increased staple food prices than are non-knowledge households. Differences are not attributable to differences in maternal schooling.