IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cwl/cwldpp/2407.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Economic Development, Undernutrition and Diabetes

Author

Listed:
  • Kaivan Munshi

    (Yale University and Toulouse School of Economics)

  • Swapnil Singh

    (Bank of Lithuania and Kaunas University of Technology)

  • Nancy Luke

    (Pennsylvania State University)

  • Anu Mary Oommen

    (Christian Medical College)

Abstract

This research connects two seemingly unrelated facts that have recently been documented in developing countries, with important consequences for global health: (i) the weak association between nutritional status and income, and (ii) the elevated risk of diabetes among normalweight individuals. The model that we develop to reconcile these facts is based on a set point for body size that is adapted to (low) pre-modern food supply, but subsequently fails to adjust to rapid economic change. During the process of development, some individuals thus remain at their low-BMI set point, despite the increase in their income (food consumption), while others who have escaped their set point (but are not necessarily overweight) are at increased risk of diabetes. The model is tested along different dimensions with multiple data sets. Our analysis indicates that many lean diabetics in developing country populations will be close to their individual- specific set point, suggesting a promising approach to diabetes control (reversal) that involves relatively little weight loss.

Suggested Citation

  • Kaivan Munshi & Swapnil Singh & Nancy Luke & Anu Mary Oommen, 2024. "Economic Development, Undernutrition and Diabetes," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 2407, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University.
    • Handle: RePEc:cwl:cwldpp:2407
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://cowles.yale.edu/sites/default/files/2024-10/d2407.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lucas Chancel & Thomas Piketty, 2019. "Indian Income Inequality, 1922‐2015: From British Raj to Billionaire Raj?," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 65(S1), pages 33-62, November.
    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.
    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. Tansel, Aysit & Keskin, Halil Ibrahim, 2017. "Education Effects on Days Hospitalized and Days out of Work by Gender: Evidence from Turkey," IZA Discussion Papers 11210, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Maja Micevska & Dil Bahadur Rahut, 2008. "Rural Nonfarm Employment and Incomes in the Himalayas," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 57(1), pages 163-193, October.
    3. Thomas Blanchet & Juliette Fournier & Thomas Piketty, 2022. "Generalized Pareto Curves: Theory and Applications," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 68(1), pages 263-288, March.
    4. Ozdamar, Oznur & Giovanis, Eleftherios, 2016. "Being Healthy in Turkey: A Pseudo-Panel Data Analysis," MPRA Paper 95838, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Peter Lanjouw & Hai-Anh Dang, 2018. "Welfare dynamics in India over a quarter-century: Poverty, vulnerability, and mobility, 1987–2012," WIDER Working Paper Series 175, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    6. Janet Currie & Tom Vogl, 2013. "Early-Life Health and Adult Circumstance in Developing Countries," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 5(1), pages 1-36, May.
    7. Peng, Fei & Anwar, Sajid & Kang, Lili, 2022. "Number of siblings, access to treated water and returns to education in China," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 526-538.
    8. Edmundo Murrugarra & Martín Valdivia, 2000. "Morbilidad autoreportada y los retornos a la salud para los varones urbanos en el Perú: enfermedad vs. Incapacidad," Otras investigaciones, Consorcio de Investigación Económica y Social.
    9. Munir Ahmad, 2003. "Agricultural Productivity, Efficiency, and Rural Poverty in Irrigated Pakistan: A Stochastic Production FrontiermAnalysis," The Pakistan Development Review, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, vol. 42(3), pages 219-248.
    10. Aswini Kumar Mishra & Vedant Bhardwaj, 2021. "Wealth distribution and accounting for changes in wealth inequality: empirical evidence from India, 1991–2012," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 54(2), pages 585-620, May.
    11. Kelly Labart & Jean-Louis Arcand, 2008. "Santé et salaires : une estimation en variables instrumentales sur un panel de travailleurs chinois," Économie et Prévision, Programme National Persée, vol. 186(5), pages 89-100.
    12. Dillon, Andrew & Friedman, Jed & Serneels, Pieter, 2014. "Health Information, Treatment, and Worker Productivity: Experimental Evidence from Malaria Testing and Treatment among Nigerian Sugarcane Cutters," IZA Discussion Papers 8074, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. Kumar, Rishabh & Balasubramanian, Sriram & Loungani, Prakash, 2022. "Inequality and locational determinants of the distribution of living standards in India," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 59-69.
    14. Miguel Nino-Zarazua, 2011. "Mexico’s Progresa-Oportunidades and the emergence of Social Assistance in Latin America," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series 14211, GDI, The University of Manchester.
    15. Baez, Javier E., 2011. "Civil wars beyond their borders: The human capital and health consequences of hosting refugees," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(2), pages 391-408, November.
    16. Vogl, Tom S., 2014. "Height, skills, and labor market outcomes in Mexico," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 84-96.
    17. Mark M. Pitt & Mark R. Rosenzweig & Mohammad Nazmul Hassan, 2012. "Human Capital Investment and the Gender Division of Labor in a Brawn-Based Economy," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(7), pages 3531-3560, December.
    18. Phiri, Andrew & Dube, Wisdom, 2014. "Nutrition and economic growth in South Africa: A momentum threshold autoregressive (MTAR) approach," MPRA Paper 52950, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Rehman Faiz Ur & Nasir Muhammad, 2020. "In the Same Boat, but not Equals: The Heterogeneous Effects of Indirect Taxation on Child Health in Punjab-Pakistan," Asian Journal of Law and Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 11(3), pages 1-26, December.
    20. Gaurav Datt & Martin Ravallion & Rinku Murgai, 2020. "Poverty and Growth in India over Six Decades," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 102(1), pages 4-27, January.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:cwl:cwldpp:2407. 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: Brittany Ladd (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cowleus.html .

    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.