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The Distribution Of Child Nutritional Status Across Countries And Over Time

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Author Info
Bhagowalia, Priya
Chen, Susan E.
Masters, William A.

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Abstract

Malnutrition is manifested in various degrees of both underweight and overweight, with large differences and rapid changes in their prevalence and severity. This paper introduces a new approach to characterizing the distribution of a population’s nutritional status, to help analyze changes in that distribution over time and across countries. Our method draws on the poverty literature to construct Foster-Greer-Thorbecke measures for the incidence and severity of under- and overweight, based on deviations in either direction from the median of a healthy population. We apply this median-based measure to the nutritional status of over 400,000 preschool children, as measured in 130 DHS surveys covering 53 countries over a period from 1986 to 2006. Unlike conventional threshold-based methods, the new approach counts changes in every child’s bodyweight. We find that this offers a more sensitive measure of differences across countries and changes over time, showing in particular that children’s bodyweights are closely linked to local agricultural output and gender equality as well as real GDP per capita.

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Publisher Info
Paper provided by American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association) in its series 2008 Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2008, Orlando, Florida with number 6167.

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Date of creation: 2008
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Handle: RePEc:ags:aaea08:6167

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Related research
Keywords: Food Security and Poverty;

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  1. Smith, Lisa C. & Haddad, Lawrence James, 2000. "Explaining child malnutrition in developing countries: a cross-country analysis," Research reports 111, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). [Downloadable!]
  2. Sahn, David E & Stifel, David C, 2002. " Robust Comparisons of Malnutrition in Developing Countries," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, American Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 84(3), pages 716-35, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. 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. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Anderson, Patricia M. & Butcher, Kristin F. & Levine, Phillip B., 2003. "Maternal employment and overweight children," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(3), pages 477-504, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. David Madden, 2006. "Body Mass Index and the Measurement of Obesity," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 06/11, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York. [Downloadable!]
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  6. Fogel, Robert W, 1994. "Economic Growth, Population Theory, and Physiology: The Bearing of Long-Term Processes on the Making of Economic Policy," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(3), pages 369-95, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  7. Osmani, Siddiq & Sen, Amartya, 2003. "The hidden penalties of gender inequality: fetal origins of ill-health," Economics and Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 105-121, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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