IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/inecre/v57y2022i2d10.1007_s41775-022-00153-w.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A microeconomic analysis of subsistence

Author

Listed:
  • Manipushpak Mitra

    (Indian Statistical Institute)

  • Debapriya Sen

    (Toronto Metropolitan University)

Abstract

We present a microeconomic analysis of subsistence in the consumer theory framework with two goods: the basic good (food) and the non-basic good (non-food). Subsistence results in two regions in the consumption set: the pre-subsistence zone in which the individual’s subsistence requirement is not met and he exclusively cares about the basic good, and the post-subsistence zone. This structure gives subsistence-induced (SI) preferences. Compared to Stone–Geary utility functions, SI preferences give a better understanding of consumption decision problems for people who are on the margins of subsistence and can be useful to clarify related issues such as the use of child labor for poor households.

Suggested Citation

  • Manipushpak Mitra & Debapriya Sen, 2022. "A microeconomic analysis of subsistence," Indian Economic Review, Springer, vol. 57(2), pages 301-320, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:inecre:v:57:y:2022:i:2:d:10.1007_s41775-022-00153-w
    DOI: 10.1007/s41775-022-00153-w
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s41775-022-00153-w
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s41775-022-00153-w?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ravn, Morten O. & Schmitt-Grohé, Stephanie & Uribe, Martín, 2008. "Macroeconomics Of Subsistence Points," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 12(S1), pages 136-147, April.
    2. Basu, Kaushik & Van, Pham Hoang, 1998. "The Economics of Child Labor," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 88(3), pages 412-427, June.
    3. de Haen, Hartwig & Klasen, Stephan & Qaim, Matin, 2011. "What do we really know? Metrics for food insecurity and undernutrition," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(6), pages 760-769.
    4. Sharif, Mohammed, 1986. "The Concept and measurement of subsistence: A survey of the literature," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 14(5), pages 555-577, May.
    5. Laborde Debucquet, David & Martin, Will & Vos, Rob, 2020. "Poverty and food insecurity could grow dramatically as COVID-19 spreads," IFPRI book chapters, in: COVID-19 and global food security, chapter 2, pages 16-19, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    6. Steger, Thomas M., 2000. "Economic growth with subsistence consumption," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(2), pages 343-361, August.
    7. Svedberg, Peter, 2002. "Undernutrition Overestimated," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 51(1), pages 5-36, October.
    8. Dasgupta, Partha & Ray, Debraj, 1986. "Inequality as a Determinant of Malnutrition and Unemployment: Theory," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 96(384), pages 1011-1034, December.
    9. George J. Stigler, 1945. "The Cost of Subsistence," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 27(2), pages 303-314.
    10. Ariel Rubinstein, 2012. "Lecture Notes in Microeconomic Theory: The Economic Agent Second Edition," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 2, number 9742.
    11. Kakwani, Nanak, 1989. "On Measuring Undernutrition," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 41(3), pages 528-552, July.
    12. Srinivasan, T. N., 1981. "Malnutrition : Some measurement and policy issues," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 8(1), pages 3-19, February.
    13. Robert T. Jensen & Nolan H. Miller, 2008. "Giffen Behavior and Subsistence Consumption," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(4), pages 1553-1577, September.
    14. Mohammed Sharif, 2003. "A behavioural analysis of the subsistence standard of living," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 27(2), pages 191-207, March.
    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. Stefan Baumgaertner & Moritz A. Drupp & Martin F. Quaas, 2013. "Subsistence and substitutability in consumer preferences," Working Paper Series in Economics 290, University of Lüneburg, Institute of Economics.
    2. Antony, Jürgen & Klarl, Torben, 2023. "Subsistence consumption and natural resource depletion: Can resource-rich low-income countries realize sustainable consumption paths?," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    3. Meysonnat, Aline & Muysken, Joan & Zon, Adriaan van, 2015. "Poverty traps: the neglected role of vitality," MERIT Working Papers 2015-052, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    4. Elkhan Richard Sadik-Zada, 2020. "Distributional Bargaining and the Speed of Structural Change in the Petroleum Exporting Labor Surplus Economies," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 32(1), pages 51-98, January.
    5. repec:ebl:ecbull:v:4:y:2008:i:30:p:1-4 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Mitra, Manipushpak & Sen, Debapriya, 2014. "Subsistence induced and complementarity induced irrelevance in preferences," MPRA Paper 59474, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. 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.
    8. Üngör, Murat, 2014. "Some thought experiments on the changes in labor supply in Turkey," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 265-272.
    9. Elias Dinopoulos & Laixun Zhao, 2007. "Child Labor and Globalization," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 25(3), pages 553-579.
    10. Ma, Chang, 2020. "Financial stability, growth and macroprudential policy," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).
    11. Jing You & Katsushi S. Imai & Raghav Gaiha, 2014. "Decoding the Growth-Nutrition Nexus in China: Inequality, Uncertainty and Food Insecurity," Discussion Paper Series DP2014-28, Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration, Kobe University, revised Dec 2014.
    12. Bühler, Dorothee & Hartje, Rebecca & Ulrike Grote, 2017. "Can household food security predict individual undernutrition? Evidence from Cambodia and Lao PDR," Hannover Economic Papers (HEP) dp-594, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät.
    13. Stefan Baumgärtner & Moritz A. Drupp & Martin F. Quaas, 2017. "Subsistence, Substitutability and Sustainability in Consumption," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 67(1), pages 47-66, May.
    14. Gersbach, Hans & Siemers, Lars-H. R., 2010. "Land Reforms And Economic Development," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 14(4), pages 527-547, September.
    15. Marco A Espinosa-Vega & Richard C. Barnett, 2005. "Barriers to Capital Accumulation and the Incidence of Child Labor," IMF Working Papers 2005/220, International Monetary Fund.
    16. Partha Dasgupta & Debraj Ray, 1987. "Adapting to Undernourishment: The Clinical Evidence and Its Implications," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-1987-010, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    17. Edmonds, Eric V. & Shrestha, Maheshwor, 2014. "You get what you pay for: Schooling incentives and child labor," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 196-211.
    18. Moritz A. Drupp, 2018. "Limits to Substitution Between Ecosystem Services and Manufactured Goods and Implications for Social Discounting," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 69(1), pages 135-158, January.
    19. Steger, Thomas M., 2000. "Economic growth with subsistence consumption," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(2), pages 343-361, August.
    20. Sonia Bhalotra, 2001. "Growth and welfare provisioning: lessons from the English Poor Laws?," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 13(7), pages 1083-1096.
    21. Strulik, Holger, 2010. "A Note On Economic Growth With Subsistence Consumption," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 14(5), pages 763-771, November.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Subsistence; Pre-subsistence zone; Post-subsistence zone; SI preferences;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D01 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Microeconomic Behavior: Underlying Principles
    • D11 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Theory
    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development

    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:spr:inecre:v:57:y:2022:i:2:d:10.1007_s41775-022-00153-w. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.