TY - JOUR

T1 - Effects of food price shocks on child malnutrition

T2 - The Mozambican experience 2008/2009

AU - Arndt, Channing

AU - Hussain, M. Azhar

AU - Salvucci, Vincenzo

AU - ∅sterdal, Lars Peter

PY - 2016/9

Y1 - 2016/9

N2 - A propitiously timed household survey carried out in Mozambique over the period 2008/2009 permits us to study the relationship between shifts in food prices and child nutrition status in a low income setting. We focus on weight-for-height and weight-for-age in different survey quarters characterized by very different food price inflation rates. Using propensity score matching techniques, we find that these nutrition measures, which are sensitive in the short run, improve significantly in the fourth quarter of the survey, when the inflation rate for basic food products is low, compared to the first semester or three quarters, when food price inflation was generally high. The prevalence of underweight, in particular, falls by about 40 percent. We conclude that the best available evidence points to food penury, driven by the food and fuel price crisis combined with a short agricultural production year, as substantially increasing malnutrition amongst under-five children in Mozambique.

AB - A propitiously timed household survey carried out in Mozambique over the period 2008/2009 permits us to study the relationship between shifts in food prices and child nutrition status in a low income setting. We focus on weight-for-height and weight-for-age in different survey quarters characterized by very different food price inflation rates. Using propensity score matching techniques, we find that these nutrition measures, which are sensitive in the short run, improve significantly in the fourth quarter of the survey, when the inflation rate for basic food products is low, compared to the first semester or three quarters, when food price inflation was generally high. The prevalence of underweight, in particular, falls by about 40 percent. We conclude that the best available evidence points to food penury, driven by the food and fuel price crisis combined with a short agricultural production year, as substantially increasing malnutrition amongst under-five children in Mozambique.

KW - Child malnutrition

KW - Food prices

KW - Inflation

KW - Mozambique

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84960917768&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.ehb.2016.03.003

DO - 10.1016/j.ehb.2016.03.003

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 26991234

AN - SCOPUS:84960917768

VL - 22

SP - 1

EP - 13

JO - Economics and Human Biology

JF - Economics and Human Biology

SN - 1570-677X

ER -