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How Consumer Price Subsidies affect Nutrition

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  • Kaushal, Neeraj
  • Muchomba, Felix M.

Abstract

We study the effect of an exogenous increase in food grain subsidy from a program targeting the poor in rural India and find that the increase in income resulting from the subsidy increased consumption of the subsidized grains and certain more expensive sources of nutrition, lowered consumption of coarse grains, the cheaper, yet, unsubsidized staple food, and increased expenditures on nonfood items but had no effect on nutrition in poor households. Estimates of the price effect of the subsidy on nutrition are also negligible; the price subsidy increased consumption of wheat and rice and lowered consumption of coarse grains.

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  • Kaushal, Neeraj & Muchomba, Felix M., 2015. "How Consumer Price Subsidies affect Nutrition," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 25-42.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:74:y:2015:i:c:p:25-42
    DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2015.04.006
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    3. Li, Nicholas, 2023. "In-kind transfers, marketization costs and household specialization: Evidence from Indian farmers," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    4. Negi, Digvijay S., 2022. "Global food price surge, in-kind transfers and household welfare: Evidence from India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    5. Omamo, S. W., 2016. "IFAD RESEARCH SERIES 6 - Why food and nutrition security matters for inclusive structural and rural transformation," IFAD Research Series 280044, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
    6. Anjani Kumar & Shinoj Parappurathu & Suresh C. Babu & P. K. Joshi, 2017. "Can better governance improve food security? An assessment of the public food distribution system in Odisha, India," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 9(6), pages 1433-1445, December.
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    9. Jaya Jumrani & J. V. Meenakshi, 2023. "How effective is a fat subsidy? Evidence from edible oil consumption in India," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 74(2), pages 327-348, June.
    10. Cornelsen, Laura & Mazzocchi, Mario & Smith, Richard D., 2019. "Fat tax or thin subsidy? How price increases and decreases affect the energy and nutrient content of food and beverage purchases in Great Britain," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 230(C), pages 318-327.
    11. Phadera,Lokendra & Sharma,Dhiraj & Wai-Poi,Matthew Grant, 2020. "Iraq's Universal Public Distribution System : Utilization and Impacts During Displacement," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9155, The World Bank.
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    14. Digvijay S. Negi, 2022. "Global food price surge, in-kind transfers, and household welfare evidence from India," Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai Working Papers 2022-006, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai, India.
    15. Kym Anderson, 2016. "Agricultural Trade, Policy Reforms, and Global Food Security," Palgrave Studies in Agricultural Economics and Food Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-137-46925-0, August.
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