China’s Nutrition Intake Inequality: 1991-2004
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This paper applies advances in the measurement of poverty and inequality to the study of undernutrition in China. Using distribution-sensitive methods, we examine the combined effect of a secular increase in incomes with a one time increase in food prices that occurred in the middle 1990’s. We find a dramatic increase in undernutrition between 1991 and 1997, and little change in undernutrition after 1997. Traditional headcounts, which are not distributional-sensitive provide misleading results in some cases. Our income elasticity estimates for calories and protein are generally zero, while we find some evidence that the percentage of fat in the calorie source is a normal good. Overall, it appears that rising incomes in China have not led to improvements in nutrition.
JOUR
Bishop, John A.
Liu, Haiyong
Zheng, Buhong
2007
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