Advanced Search
MyIDEAS: Login

Fighting poverty and child malnutrition: on the design of foreign aid policies

Contents:

Author Info

  • Chrysovalantis VASILAKIS

    () (UNIVERSITE CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES))

Abstract

In this paper, we have developed a two-period overlapping-generation model featuring the effects of child nutrition in developing countries. The model gives rise to multiple equilibria including a poverty trap. It shows that child nutrition status may affect the development of human capital unfavorably and leads countries into poverty. Various exogenous foreign aid policies implemented by international organizations such as the World Food Programme (WFP) are considered. School feeding programs can solve social problems like child labor. However, they do not necessarily help countries to achieve economic development. On the contrary they can lead to poverty if the initial human capital is low. Only if the subsidies are large, can they prevent a country being trapped in poverty. If the WFP provides a fixed amount of food to households, then a quality/quantity trade-off takes place: Parents decrease the nutrition of their offspring and increase the number of children they have. Consequently, total nutrition decreases and the developing country gets locked into poverty whatever its level of human capital. At the end of the paper, we estimate the changes in human capital from a sample of 66 developing countries (almost half of which are African countries), and use the estimates to explore the quantitative effects of the model. The model is then calibrated under different production functions. The results confirm the theoretical predictions.

Download Info

If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
File URL: http://sites.uclouvain.be/econ/DP/IRES/2011030.pdf
Download Restriction: no

Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES) in its series Discussion Papers (IRES - Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales) with number 2011030.

as in new window
Length: 41
Date of creation: 06 Sep 2011
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:ctl:louvir:2011030

Contact details of provider:
Postal: Place Montesquieu 3, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgium)
Fax: +32 10473945
Email:
Web page: http://www.uclouvain.be/ires
More information through EDIRC

Related research

Keywords: Child Nutrition; Foreign Aids; poverty traps; human capital; school meals;

Other versions of this item:

Find related papers by JEL classification:

This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

References

References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
as in new window
  1. Robert W. Fogel & Larry T. Wimmer, 1992. "Early Indicators of Later Work Levels, Disease, and Death," NBER Historical Working Papers 0038, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  2. Oded Galor & David Mayer-Foulkes, 2004. "Food for Thought: Basic Needs and Persistent Educational Inequality," GE, Growth, Math methods 0410002, EconWPA.
  3. Oded Galor & Omer Moav, 2000. "Natural Selection and the Origin of economic Growth," Working Papers 2000-18, Brown University, Department of Economics.
  4. Harold Alderman & John Hoddinott & Bill Kinsey, 2004. "Long Term Consequences Of Early Childhood Malnutrition," HiCN Working Papers 09, Households in Conflict Network.
  5. Robert W. Fogel, 1994. "Economic Growth, Population Theory, and Physiology: The Bearing of Long-Term Processes on the Making of Economic Policy," NBER Working Papers 4638, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  6. David Roodman, 2004. "The Anarchy of Numbers: Aid, Development, and Cross-country Empirics," Development and Comp Systems 0412003, EconWPA.
  7. William Easterly & Ross Levine & David Roodman, 2004. "Aid, Policies, and Growth: Comment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(3), pages 774-780, June.
  8. Shankha Chakraborty, 2002. "Endogenous Lifetime and Economic Growth," University of Oregon Economics Department Working Papers 2002-03, University of Oregon Economics Department, revised 26 Jan 2002.
  9. Glomm, Gerhard & Palumbo, Michael G., 1993. "Optimal intertemporal consumption decisions under the threat of starvation," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(2), pages 271-291, December.
  10. Robert Haveman & Barbara Wolfe, 1995. "The Determinants of Children's Attainments: A Review of Methods and Findings," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 33(4), pages 1829-1878, December.
  11. Oded Galor, 2006. "The Demographic Transition," Working Papers 2006-24, Brown University, Department of Economics.
  12. Kyriakos C. Neanidis, 2010. "Humanitarian Aid, Fertility, and Economic Growth," Centre for Growth and Business Cycle Research Discussion Paper Series 139, Economics, The Univeristy of Manchester.
  13. Omer Moav, 2005. "Cheap Children and the Persistence of Poverty," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 115(500), pages 88-110, 01.
  14. Orazio Attanasio & Sagiri Kitao & Giovanni L. Violante, 2010. "Financing Medicare: A General Equilibrium Analysis," NBER Chapters, in: Demography and the Economy, pages 333-366 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  15. Arora, Suchit, 2001. "Health, Human Productivity, And Long-Term Economic Growth," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 61(03), pages 699-749, September.
  16. Peter J. Klenow & Mark Bils, 2000. "Does Schooling Cause Growth?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(5), pages 1160-1183, December.
  17. Raouf BOUCEKKINE & Jean-Pierre LAFFARGUE, 2009. "On the Distributional Consequences of Epidemics," Discussion Papers (IRES - Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales) 2009012, Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES).
  18. P R Agénor, 2009. "Public Capital, Health Persistence and Poverty Traps," Centre for Growth and Business Cycle Research Discussion Paper Series 115, Economics, The Univeristy of Manchester.
  19. Matthias Doepke, 2004. "Accounting for Fertility Decline During the Transition to Growth," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 9(3), pages 347-383, 09.
  20. Carl-Johan Dalgaard & Henrik Hansen & Finn Tarp, 2004. "On The Empirics of Foreign Aid and Growth," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 114(496), pages F191-F216, 06.
  21. Leonid V. Azarnert, 2008. "Foreign Aid, Fertility and Human Capital Accumulation," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 75(300), pages 766-781, November.
  22. Shankha Chakraborty & Mausumi Das, 2004. "Mortality, Human Capital and Persistent Inequality," Econometric Society 2004 North American Summer Meetings 100, Econometric Society.
  23. Holger Strulik, 2002. "Child Mortality, Child Labour, and Economic Development," Quantitative Macroeconomics Working Papers 20205, Hamburg University, Department of Economics.
  24. Salam Abdus & Peter Rangazas, 2011. "Adult Nutrition and Growth," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 14(4), pages 636-649, October.
  25. Moshe Hazan & Binyamin Berdugo, 2005. "Child Labor, Fertility and Economic Growth," Development and Comp Systems 0507002, EconWPA.
  26. Currais, Luis & Rivera, Berta & Rungo, Paolo, 2010. "Effects of the complementarity of child nutrition and education on persistent deprivation," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 106(1), pages 67-69, January.
  27. Costas Aariadis & John Stachurski, 2004. "Poverty Traps," Department of Economics - Working Papers Series 913, The University of Melbourne.
    • Azariadis, Costas & Stachurski, John, 2005. "Poverty Traps," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 5 Elsevier.
  28. Christopher R. Udry, 2004. "Child Labor," Yale School of Management Working Papers ysm399, Yale School of Management.
  29. Fernández-Villaverde, Jesús & Krueger, Dirk, 2011. "Consumption And Saving Over The Life Cycle: How Important Are Consumer Durables?," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 15(05), pages 725-770, November.
  30. Kalemli-Ozcan, Sebnem & Ryder, Harl E. & Weil, David N., 2000. "Mortality decline, human capital investment, and economic growth," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(1), pages 1-23, June.
  31. Behrman, Jere R., 1993. "The economic rationale for investing in nutrition in developing countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 21(11), pages 1749-1771, November.
  32. Gary S. Becker, 1975. "Human Capital: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis, with Special Reference to Education, 2nd ed," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number beck75-1.
  33. Psacharopoulos, George, 1994. "Returns to investment in education: A global update," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 22(9), pages 1325-1343, September.
  34. Strulik, Holger & Weisdorf, Jacob, 2010. "How Child Costs and Survival Shaped the Industrial Revolution and the Demographic Transition: A Theoretical Inquiry," Diskussionspapiere der Wirtschaftswissenschaftlichen Fakultät der Leibniz Universität Hannover dp-442, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät.
  35. Hansen, Henrik & Tarp, Finn, 2001. "Aid and growth regressions," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(2), pages 547-570, April.
  36. George Economides & Sarantis Kalyvitis & Apostolis Philippopoulos, 2008. "Does foreign aid distort incentives and hurt growth? Theory and evidence from 75 aid-recipient countries," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 134(3), pages 463-488, March.
  37. Seema Jayachandran & Adriana Lleras-Muney, 2008. "Life Expectancy and Human Capital Investments: Evidence From Maternal Mortality Declines," NBER Working Papers 13947, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

Citations

Lists

This item is not listed on Wikipedia, on a reading list or among the top items on IDEAS.

Statistics

Access and download statistics

Corrections

When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ctl:louvir:2011030

For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Anne DAVISTER-LOGIST).

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 references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.

If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link 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 profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

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