Anil B. Deolalikar

Health and nutrition

Publisher Summary Health and nutrition are important as ends in themselves and often are emphasized as critical components of basic needs in developing countries. Cross-country comparisons of standard data suggest that on the average health and nutrition in the developing world falls considerably short of that in the developed world. The chapter presents a review on a number of issues regarding health and nutrition in developing countries and available studies on the determinants of health and nutrition and on their impact on productivity in developing countries. First, the chapter presents a theoretical framework and some issues pertaining to the empirical representation of health and nutrition. The chapter then presents a survey on existing studies of both health and nutrition determinants and on their productivity influence and conclude with some discussion of policy issues and directions for future research. A theoretical framework for the determinants of health and nutrition and their possible productivity impacts is essential to analyze these variables in an organized manner and to be able to interpret empirical studies. The chapter discusses micro production function and demand considerations. The chapter then discusses in brief the supply side and macro relations. Finally, several major econometric problems are reviewed, stating that they are ubiquitous in empirical studies attempting to relate health, nutrition, and socioeconomic variables. Two broad categories of studies of health determinants are of particular interest: those attempting to estimate the reduced-form demand for health outcomes and health-care goods, and those attempting to estimate the underlying health production function.

Will Developing Country Nutrition Improve with Income? A Case Study for Rural South India

The World Bank and others maintain that the major mechanism for improving nutrition in poor communities is increases in income. Aggregate estimates of food expenditure are consistent with such a possibility, implying income/expenditure elasticities close to one. However, the high degree of aggregation at which such estimates are made means that the considerable increase in price per nutrient as income increases is ignored, and the nutrient elasticities are therefore overstated. Estimates for a rural south Indian sample indicate that this bias is considerable and that the true nutrient elasticities with respect to income may be close to zero. Copyright 1987 by University of Chicago Press.

Nutrition and Labor Productivity in Agriculture: Estimates for Rural South India

Using panel data for rural South India, a fixed-effects individual wage equation and farm production function are estimated that have calorie intake and nutritional status (weight-for-height) of workers as their arguments. Neither market wages, nor farm output, are observed to be responsive to changes in the daily energy intake of workers. However, both are highly elastic with respect to weight-for-height. These results suggest that, while the human body can adapt to inadequate nutrition in the short run, it cannot adapt as readily to chronic malnutrition that eventually results in loss of weight-for-height. Copyright 1988 by MIT Press.

The Intrahousehold Demand for Nutrients in Rural South India Individual Estimates, Fixed Effects, and Permanent Income

Good estimates of nutrient intake responses to prices and income are very useful for the evaluation of the numerous efforts to improve nutrition in many developing countries through price-subsidy and income-generation policies. We discuss three problems in standard estimates of these responses and then illustrate their implications for nutrient demand relations for a poor sample from rural south India. (1) Intra-household nutrient allocations usually are ignored. In this case nutrient intakes for females systematically have algebraically lower price elasticities than do those for males, which may leave the females particularly vulnerable at times of food shortages. (2) Unobserved fixed effects may bias the estimates of responses to observed variables. In this case not only the community fixed effects on which the previous literature has focused, but also household and individual fixed effects are important. Failure to control for them results in substantial algebraically upward biases in many estimated price responses. (3) Most previous studies use current instead of permanent income, which a priori may account for the low estimated income elasticities. In this case, however, the use of permanent income does not change the conclusion that the nutrient intakes responses to income are quite small.

Gender Differences in the Returns to Schooling and in School Enrollment Rates in Indonesia

Earnings data on a nationally representative sample of Indonesian adults show that males have significantly lower returns to secondary and tertiary schooling than females. These differences are greatest at the level of Diploma 1 and vocational secondary education, but are still substantial for nonvocational secondary schooling and university education. The estimated returns to schooling are also greater for older cohorts than for younger cohorts, although the inter-cohort differences are identical for males and females. It appears that women in Indonesia have been acquiring secondary and tertiary education in relatively larger numbers than men in recent years, perhaps in response to the greater relative returns to female higher education. However, there is still a gap between male and female enrollments at the secondary and tertiary levels. The analysis in this paper does not show many strong and systematic gender differences in the effects of household and community characteristics on school enrollments.

TECHNOLOGY PRODUCTION AND TECHNOLOGY PURCHASE IN INDIAN INDUSTRY: AN ECONOMETRIC ANALYSIS

An econometric analysis of the decisions of Indian firms to invest in their own R&D and to purchase technology (through licensing agreements) is undertaken. These decisions are treated as being jointly determined by characteristics of Indian industries, Indian prices, and the supply of purchasable foreign technology. The study finds that industrial structure, firm size, and public and private ownership influence the mix of own R&D and technology purchase. The pool of purchasable foreign technology indices both increased adaptive R&D and technology purchase by Indian firms. Copyright 1989 by MIT Press.

Is Variety the Spice of Life? Implications for Calorie Intake

The income elasticity of calories generally is substantially smaller than the income elasticity of food expenditure. One reason may be an increasing concern for food variety as incomes increase. Food variety can be linked with two characteristics of food indifference curves: (1) curvature and (2) location of the curves relative to the axes. Estimates suggest increasing taste for variety as food budgets increase. Therefore, such taste for variety apparently underlies in part the low income elasticities for calorie demand, which in turn cast doubt on the World Bank assertion that the nutrient intakes of poor populations will improve rapidly with income. Copyright 1989 by MIT Press.

A “One Health” Approach to Address Emerging Zoonoses: The HALI Project in Tanzania

Jonna Mazet and colleagues describe their work in the Tanzania-based HALI Project, which adopts the “One Health” approach to address emerging zoonoses and that recognizes the interconnectedness of human, animal, and environmental health.

Poverty, Growth, and Inequality in Thailand

While the thesis that economic growth reduces poverty has existed for some time, it has only been in the last few years that a large empirical literature has arisen on the nature of the relationship between poverty and growth. These studies have attempted to measure the sensitivity of poverty to growth, i.e., the “growth elasticity of poverty”, to ask the question—do he poor in particular, as opposed to all segments of society, share the benefits of economic growth proportionally? Virtually all such studies are based on cross-country data.

Marriage Markets, Labor Markets and Unobserved Human Capital : An Empirical Exploration for South-Central India

Some aspects of the linkage between dimensions of unobserved human capital that are rewarded in the marriage market and in the wage market are explored. It is postulated that in rural south-central India the schooling age and dowry of a mans wife are determined by the mans observed characteristics (schooling caste) and those of his parents (parental wealth parental occupation) and dimensions of his unobserved (by the researcher) human capital. The theoretical model consisted of two sets of equations the first describing the determination of the wifes characteristics through the marriage market and the second the determination of the mans wage and wage growth and his participation in the wage market. The data were part of the Village-Level Studies (VLS) conducted in rural semiarid south India. A total of 120 households from 3 villages were surveyed continuously over the period 1975-76 to 1984-85. Detailed information was obtained on farm management income consumption time allocation and asset ownership. The mans schooling had a significant effect on his wifes schooling and on her age. The characteristics of the mans parental household had a significant effect on each of the 3 observed characteristics of his wife. The year of marriage significantly increased the wifes schooling (by 0.08 year per year) the net dowry (1.2% per year) and the wifes age at marriage (by 0.24 years per year). Schooling had a significant impact on a mans participation in the wage market and on wage growth. A mans unobserved human capital generally had a significant and positive effect on his wage rate and wage growth though a negative effect on participation in the wage market. Some important dimensions of human capital beyond schooling had important effects in both marriage and labor markets. Potential brides and parents presumably value such characteristics because they increase the expected earning power of potential husbands.