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Do Consumer Price Subsidies Really Improve Nutrition?

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  • Robert T. Jensen
  • Nolan H. Miller

Abstract

Many developing countries use food price subsidies or price controls to improve the nutrition of the poor. However, subsidizing goods on which households spend a high proportion of their budget can create large wealth effects. Consumers may then substitute towards foods with higher non-nutritional attributes like taste, but lower nutritional content per unit currency, weakening or perhaps even reversing the intended impact of the subsidy. We present data from a randomized program of large price subsidies for poor households in two provinces of China. We find that the nutritional impact caused by the subsidy was at best extremely small, and for some households actually negative.

Suggested Citation

  • Robert T. Jensen & Nolan H. Miller, 2008. "Do Consumer Price Subsidies Really Improve Nutrition?," CID Working Papers 160, Center for International Development at Harvard University.
    • Handle: RePEc:cid:wpfacu:160
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Kochar, Anjini, 2005. "Can Targeted Food Programs Improve Nutrition? An Empirical Analysis of India's Public Distribution System," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 54(1), pages 203-235, October.
    2. Thomas, Duncan & Strauss, John, 1997. "Health and wages: Evidence on men and women in urban Brazil," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 77(1), pages 159-185, March.
    3. 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.
    4. Strauss, John & Thomas, Duncan, 1995. "Human resources: Empirical modeling of household and family decisions," Handbook of Development Economics, in: Hollis Chenery & T.N. Srinivasan (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 34, pages 1883-2023, Elsevier.
    5. Tarozzi, Alessandro, 2005. "The Indian Public Distribution System as provider of food security: Evidence from child nutrition in Andhra Pradesh," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 49(5), pages 1305-1330, July.
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    1. Shimokawa, Satoru, "undated". "Asymmetric Response of Nutrient Intakes to Cereal Price Changes among the Poor in China: Implications for the Effect of Cereal Price Subsidies on the Poor’s Nutrient Intakes," 2009 Conference, August 16-22, 2009, Beijing, China 51661, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    2. Shimokawa, Satoru, 2010. "Nutrient Intake of the Poor and its Implications for the Nutritional Effect of Cereal Price Subsidies: Evidence from China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(7), pages 1001-1011, July.

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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • I38 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs
    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • Q18 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Agricultural Policy; Food Policy; Animal Welfare Policy

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