IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hhs/uunewp/2007_020.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

How responsive is body weight to transitory income changes? Evidence from rural Tanzania

Author

Listed:
  • Bengtsson, Niklas

    (Department of Economics)

Abstract

We use time-series of rainfall along with individual fixed effects to estimate the response of body weight to transitory changes in house-hold income and expenditure. Our data consist of a longitudinal sample of subsistence farmers in rural Tazania, representing one of the poorest populations in the world. We find that the response of body weight to transitory changes in household income is positive on average, but that the impact decreases with age and being male. For female children, a ten percent increase in household income implies an increase in body weight with about 0.4 kilo. The body weight of male adults is practically invariant to income changes.

Suggested Citation

  • Bengtsson, Niklas, 2007. "How responsive is body weight to transitory income changes? Evidence from rural Tanzania," Working Paper Series 2007:20, Uppsala University, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:uunewp:2007_020
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://uu.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:39087/FULLTEXT01.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. John Strauss & Duncan Thomas, 1998. "Health, Nutrition, and Economic Development," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 36(2), pages 766-817, June.
    2. Behrman, Jere R & Deolalikar, Anil B, 1987. "Will Developing Country Nutrition Improve with Income? A Case Study for Rural South India," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 95(3), pages 492-507, June.
    3. Takashi Yamano & Harold Alderman & Luc Christiaensen, 2005. "Child Growth, Shocks, and Food Aid in Rural Ethiopia," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 87(2), pages 273-288.
    4. Stefan Dercon & Pramila Krishnan, 2000. "In Sickness and in Health: Risk Sharing within Households in Rural Ethiopia," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 108(4), pages 688-727, August.
    5. Kenneth I. Wolpin & Mark R. Rosenzweig, 2000. "Natural "Natural Experiments" in Economics," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 38(4), pages 827-874, December.
    6. Rose, Elaina, 2001. "Ex ante and ex post labor supply response to risk in a low-income area," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(2), pages 371-388, April.
    7. Alderman, Harold & Hoogeveen, Hans & Rossi, Mariacristina, 2006. "Reducing child malnutrition in Tanzania: Combined effects of income growth and program interventions," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 4(1), pages 1-23, January.
    8. Subramanian, Shankar & Deaton, Angus, 1996. "The Demand for Food and Calories," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 104(1), pages 133-162, February.
    9. Foster, Andrew D, 1995. "Prices, Credit Markets and Child Growth in Low-Income Rural Areas," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 105(430), pages 551-570, May.
    10. Hoddinott, John & Kinsey, Bill, 2001. "Child Growth in the Time of Drought," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 63(4), pages 409-436, September.
    11. Anjini Kochar, 1999. "Smoothing Consumption by Smoothing Income: Hours-of-Work Responses to Idiosyncratic Agricultural Shocks in Rural India," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 81(1), pages 50-61, February.
    12. Lawrence Haddad & Harold Alderman & Simon Appleton & Lina Song & Yisehac Yohannes, 2003. "Reducing Child Malnutrition: How Far Does Income Growth Take Us?," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 17(1), pages 107-131, June.
    13. Deaton, Angus, 1992. "Understanding Consumption," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198288244.
    14. Jonathan Morduch, 1995. "Income Smoothing and Consumption Smoothing," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 9(3), pages 103-114, Summer.
    15. Bouis, Howarth E. & Haddad, Lawrence J., 1992. "Are estimates of calorie-income fxelasticities too high? : A recalibration of the plausible range," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 333-364, October.
    16. Beegle, Kathleen & Dehejia, Rajeev H. & Gatti, Roberta, 2006. "Child labor and agricultural shocks," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(1), pages 80-96, October.
    17. Elaina Rose, 1999. "Consumption Smoothing and Excess Female Mortality in Rural India," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 81(1), pages 41-49, February.
    18. Jere R. Behrman & Anil B. Deolalikar, 1990. "The Intrahousehold Demand for Nutrients in Rural South India: Individual Estimates, Fixed Effects, and Permanent Income," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 25(4), pages 665-696.
    19. Bhargava, Alok, 1997. "Nutritional status and the allocation of time in Rwandese households," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 77(1), pages 277-295, March.
    20. Behrman, Jere R & Deolalikar, Anil B, 1989. "Is Variety the Spice of Life? Implications for Calorie Intake," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 71(4), pages 666-672, November.
    21. John Hoddinott & Bill Kinsey, 2001. "Child Growth in the Time of Drought," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 63(4), pages 409-436, September.
    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. Faiz Ur Rehman & Muhammad Nasir, 2018. "In the Same Boat, but not Equals: The Heterogeneous Effects of Indirect Taxation on Child Health in Punjab-Pakistan," PIDE-Working Papers 2018:158, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics.
    2. Jeffrey A. Flory, 2011. "Micro-Savings & Informal Insurance in Villages: How Financial Deepening Affects Safety Nets of the Poor, A Natural Field Experiment," Working Papers 2011-008, Becker Friedman Institute for Research In Economics.
    3. Mangyo, Eiji, 2008. "Who benefits more from higher household consumption? The intra-household allocation of nutrients in China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(2), pages 296-312, June.
    4. Jorge M. Aguero & Michael R. Carter & Ingrid Woolard, 2006. "The Impact of Unconditional Cash Transfers on Nutrition: The South African Child Support Grant," SALDRU Working Papers 8, Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town.
    5. Flory, Jeffrey A., 2012. "Formal Savings Spillovers on Microenterprise Growth and Production Decisions Among Non-Savers in Villages: Evidence from a Field Experiment," 2012 Annual Meeting, August 12-14, 2012, Seattle, Washington 125013, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    6. Darrouzet-Nardi, Amelia & Masters, William, 2015. "Nutrition smoothing: Can access to towns and cities protect children against poor health conditions at birth?," 2015 Conference, August 9-14, 2015, Milan, Italy 211558, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    7. Marcos Vera-Hernández & Aida Galiano Martínez, 2008. "Health shocks, household consumption, and child nutrition," Working Papers. Serie EC 2008-14, Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Económicas, S.A. (Ivie).
    8. Jonathan Colmer, 2013. "Climate Variability, Child Labour and Schooling: Evidence on the Intensive and Extensive Margin," GRI Working Papers 132, Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment.
    9. Subha Mani, 2012. "Is there Complete, Partial, or No Recovery from Childhood Malnutrition? – Empirical Evidence from Indonesia," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 74(5), pages 691-715, October.
    10. Mansuri, Ghazala, 2006. "Migration,sex bias, and child growth in rural Pakistan," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3946, The World Bank.
    11. Mohammad Ali & Kira M. Villa & Janak Joshi, 2018. "Health and hunger: nutrient response to income depending on caloric availability in Nepal," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 49(5), pages 611-621, September.
    12. Indranil Dutta & Shruti Kapoor & Prasanta K. Pattanaik, 2020. "Nutrient consumption in India: Evidence from a village study," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(3), pages 855-877, August.
    13. Jumrani, Jaya, 2023. "How responsive are nutrients in India? Some recent evidence," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    14. repec:eee:labchp:v:3:y:1999:i:pb:p:2859-2939 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Mekasha, Tseday J. & Molla, Kiflu G. & Tarp, Finn & Aikaeli, Jehovaness, 2022. "Commodity price fluctuations and child malnutrition," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    16. DeLoach, Stephen B. & Lamanna, Erika, 2011. "Measuring the Impact of Microfinance on Child Health Outcomes in Indonesia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(10), pages 1808-1819.
    17. Rentschler, Jun E., 2013. "Why resilience matters - the poverty impacts of disasters," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6699, The World Bank.
    18. Lohmann, Steffen & Lechtenfeld, Tobias, 2015. "The Effect of Drought on Health Outcomes and Health Expenditures in Rural Vietnam," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 432-448.
    19. Debbie L Humphries & Jere R Behrman & Benjamin T Crookston & Kirk A Dearden & Whitney Schott & Mary E Penny & on behalf of the Young Lives Determinants and Consequences of Child Growth Project Team, 2014. "Households across All Income Quintiles, Especially the Poorest, Increased Animal Source Food Expenditures Substantially during Recent Peruvian Economic Growth," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(11), pages 1-13, November.
    20. Sawada, Yasuyuki & Takasaki, Yoshito, 2017. "Natural Disaster, Poverty, and Development: An Introduction," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 2-15.
    21. Skoufias, Emmanuel & Vinha, Katja, 2012. "Climate variability and child height in rural Mexico," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 10(1), pages 54-73.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Income variability; Consumption; Nutrition; sub-Saharan Africa;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D13 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Production and Intrahouse Allocation
    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development

    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:hhs:uunewp:2007_020. 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: Ulrika Öjdeby (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nekuuse.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.