Convergence in nutrient intakes and examination of nutrition-income elasticities in sub Saharan Africa: Implications on Health and welfare

The objective of the study is twofold: first, to investigate whether a nutrition convergence process exists in sub Saharan Africa (SSA) countries, and second, to examine the response of per capita nutrient intake [i.e. calories, proteins and fats] to changes in income (i.e. nutrient-income elasticities) in the region. Annual time series data for 43 countries covering 1975-2009 cum balanced panel of 1505 observations was employed for the analysis. The convergence hypothesis is examined using the neo-classical growth model, whilst nutrient-income elasticities are estimated based on the aggregate Engel Curve. However, the empirical results show that the null hypothesis of no nutrition convergence is strongly rejected, which indicates tendency towards equalization of per capital nutrient intake in SSA countries. Also, the estimated nutrient-income elasticities are of modest size as the relationship between calories-income and proteins-income was found to be non-linear and linear for fat-income. Further analysis reveals that the calorie and protein-income elasticities are significantly different from zero at higher income and diminished.