Women’s rank modifies the relationship between household and women’s food insecurity in complex households in northern Burkina Faso

This study examined the relationship between food insecurity at household and woman–children sub-unit levels and factors modifying this relationship in complex households in northern Burkina Faso. Data were collected from 126 households and 176 woman–children sub-units every 6 months from July 2001 to July 2003. Household food insecurity varied more between seasons than did woman–children sub-unit food insecurity. Woman–children sub-unit food insecurity increased when household food insecurity increased. Woman–children sub-units in monogamous households were less food insecure – and more at risk of becoming food insecure when the household became food insecure – than sub-units headed by women with first or second rank in polygamous households. Within polygamous households, woman–children sub-units headed by women with rank third or more were more likely to become food insecure when the household became food insecure than those with first or second rank. These results have implications for design, planning, and evaluation of programs and projects aiming to alleviate food insecurity in this and similar settings.     

Changes in the propensity of overweight US women to under-assess their body weight status

National data indicate that there was almost no change in the accuracy of body weight assessments of overweight women over the past 20 years. The accuracy in weight assessment is influenced by a number of social-demographic and economic factors; many of them have opposite effects and cancel out each other. This paper examines changes in misperception of body weight among overweight women in the United States, using data from the 1988–1994 and 1999–2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Changes in characteristics of the population, such as the increased share of Hispanics in the US population, between these two time periods explain only a small portion of the changes in the accuracy of body weight assessment. Most of the differences come from changes in the association between population characteristics and the likelihood an overweight woman underestimates her weight status. Results also indicate that overweight women who receive benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly Food Stamp Program) are consistently more likely to misperceive themselves as healthy weight or underweight than higher income overweight women.     

What happens to diet and child health when migration splits households? Evidence from a migration lottery program

The impact of migration on food security and child health is likely to differ depending on whether children themselves migrate or whether they remain behind while other household members migrate. However, existing studies have not been able to examine how impacts differ in these two scenarios because parallel data are required for both the sending and receiving country. Moreover, self-selection into migration makes unbiased estimation of either impact difficult. We overcome these problems by using a unique survey of Tongan households that applied to migrate to New Zealand through a migrant quota which selects households through a random ballot. This survey covers both migrant children in New Zealand and non-migrant children in Tonga, with the migration policy rules providing a source of exogenous variation for identifying impacts. Our estimates of short-run impacts show that diets diverge upon migration: children who migrate experience improvements, while diets worsen for children who remain. There is also suggestive evidence of a divergence in health outcomes, with increases in weight-for-age and height-for-age found for migrant children, and decreases found for children who remain behind while other household members migrate.     

Child hunger in the developing world: An analysis of environmental and social correlates

Using two complementary methods in a framework that allows incorporating both environmental and household-level factors, we explore the correlates of underweight status among children. We use individual children as the units of analysis in 19 African countries, and subnational survey strata in 43 African, Asian and Latin American countries. We consider the relationship between household-level demographic and health survey data, environmental factors from external geospatial data sets and two indicators of malnutrition among children aged 1–3, deviations from the international standards of weight-for-age and height-for-age. We discuss methods for data integration. In general, household determinants explain more variation than environmental factors, perhaps partly due to more error-prone measurement at the community level. Among individual children, some measures of agricultural capacity are related to lower incidence of child hunger, while among regions, measures relating to urbanness and population density show a stronger relationship. We give recommendations for further study, data collection and policy making.     

Who is left behind? Exploring the characteristics of China's broadband non-adopting families

China has made significant progress in broadband development. As of September 2018, 95% of China's population was covered by 4G networks. However, our estimates show that nearly 30% of China's families did not use broadband that year. This study attempts to investigate the characteristics of China's broadband left-behind families. Overall, consistent with the findings for other countries, families with a lower socioeconomic status are more likely to be broadband non-adopters. In the information society, older, poorer, rural and less educated families are left behind. It is recommended that the Chinese government shift from a top-down investment-driven policy to a user-centered demand-driven policy to address the digital divide.     

Labor market participation of Chinese agricultural households: Empirical evidence from Zhejiang province

This work is devoted to the analysis of the different labor market participation regimes of Chinese farm households over the reform process in the 1980s and 1990s. Using household data over the period 1986–2002 from the province Zhejiang, we apply a multinomial logit model to empirically examine household, farm, and regional characteristics affecting the probability that farmers participate in one of four alternative labor market regimes. As generally accepted, off-farm participation is the dominant form of farm households’ labor market participation. But rural households show additionally a significant impact on rural employment mainly linked with non-agricultural household business. Results suggest that labor market decisions are significantly related to several family, farm, and village characteristics. In particular, we find education to be a key determinant of participation. Furthermore, results point to a higher probability of female household members to take up off-farm work.     

Child dietary quality in rural Nepal: Effectiveness of a community-level development intervention

Nutrition-sensitive agricultural interventions have the potential to improve child dietary quality in rural households, as evidenced by a growing body of work which concurrently measures agricultural and nutrition indicators. Our objective was to investigate whether children in rural farming communities of Nepal participating in a community-level, nutrition-sensitive development intervention had improved dietary quality compared with children living in non-participating matched rural communities. Six rural communities of Nepal where livelihoods were predominantly agricultural were selected to participate in the phased implementation of a community-level development intervention by Heifer International. Households and children in each community were surveyed at baseline, and follow-up surveys were implemented every six months for twenty-four months. Detailed data on food consumption for children older than 6 months of age were collected using a 24 h recall for 17 foods and food groups; parents responded for children. A difference-in-differences model with household fixed-effects and an analysis of covariance model were used to analyze the resulting panel data. Results indicated that the impacts of the intervention varied by agro-ecological region and by season. In the Hills region, which is poorer on average and more conducive to livestock production, children who had received the intervention for two years were 2.2 times as likely to have consumed food from an additional food group, 1.27 times as likely to have achieved minimum dietary diversity and 1.38 times as likely to have consumed animal source foods as children who received the intervention for only one year. In the Terai region, which is more conducive to crop production, there was no significant change in dietary quality attributable to the intervention. These results provide evidence that particularly vulnerable families can take advantage of community-level development activities. Given that the effects of community-level development activities were disparate across communities within the same country, we conclude that tailoring development activities for particular locations is necessary for success.     

An unequal burden: Intra-household dimensions of seasonal health in Tanzania

Seasonal variation in nutritional status is a concern in sub-Saharan Africa. Seasonality in the food consumption of young Tanzanian children has a substantial and negative impact on later life outcomes. Seasonal variation in adult nutritional status has implications for labor productivity and prenatal health. Just as mean poverty status or mean health status varies within households, seasonal patterns in health status are likely to vary within households, as well as the mechanisms underlying seasonal variation. We parameterize and compare seasonality in nutritional status across multiple types of household members in rural, farming households in Tanzania, using a novel anthropometric measure of body mass index z-score that is comparable across adults and children. Young children not yet in school and working adults are most vulnerable to seasonal fluctuations in nutritional status. Children in school and older adults are relatively shielded. Seasonal variation in the nutritional status of working adults can be partly explained by variation in dietary quality and agricultural labor hours. Seasonal variation in the nutritional status of young children is not explained by either factor, nor is it mitigated by market access. Our results suggest we do not understand the data generating process behind seasonality in the nutritional status of young children, despite the critical implications of this seasonality for development and later life productivity.     

Agricultural growth,poverty, and nutrition in Tanzania

Rapid economic growth does not appear to have significantly improved poverty and nutrition outcomes in Tanzania. We link recent production trends to household incomes using a regionalized, recursive dynamic computable general equilibrium and microsimulation model. Results indicate some inconsistency between recent growth and poverty measurements in Tanzania. We also find that the structure of economic growth may have constrained the rate of poverty reduction. Agricultural growth has been driven by larger-scale farmers who are less likely to be poor; and has been concentrated among crops grown in specific regions of the country. Slow expansion of food crops and livestock also explain the weak relationship between agricultural growth and nutrition outcomes. We find that accelerating agricultural growth, particularly in maize, strengthens the growth–poverty relationship and enhances households’ caloric availability, while also contributing significantly to growth itself.     

Bargaining power,decision making,and biofortification: The role of gender in adoption of orange sweet potato in Uganda

We examine the role of gender dimensions of intrahousehold bargaining power and decision making in the adoption and diffusion of orange sweet potato (OSP), a biofortified crop being promoted to increase dietary intakes of vitamin A in Uganda. We use patterns of ownership and control of land and other assets by married men and women to create gender-disaggregated indicators of bargaining power, allowing for joint and sole ownership and control of land and assets. Using data from an experimental evaluation of a project promoting OSP adoption, we find that the probability of adopting OSP is not affected by the exclusive or joint control of assets by women at the household level. However, within households, parcels of land under joint control, in which the woman has primary control over decision making, are significantly more likely to contain OSP. Women who control a higher share of household nonland resources are more likely to share OPS vines, showing that women use greater bargaining power to facilitate diffusion of this health-promoting technology. We do not find any impact of women’s bargaining power on children’s dietary intakes of Vitamin A, possibly because husbands and wives have the same preferences regarding their children’s nutritional status. These results contribute to reshaping our understanding of household decision making to inform the design and implementation of agriculture-nutrition interventions.     

Impact of off-farm income on food security and nutrition in Nigeria

While the poverty implications of off-farm income have been analyzed in different developing countries, much less is known about the impact of off-farm income on household food security and nutrition. Here, this research gap is addressed by using farm survey data from Nigeria. Econometric analyses are employed to examine the mechanisms through which off-farm income affects household calorie and micronutrient supply, dietary quality, and child anthropometry. We find that off-farm income has a positive net effect on food security and nutrition. The prevalence of child stunting, underweight, and wasting is lower in households with off-farm income than in households without. Using a structural model, we also show that off-farm income contributes to higher food production and farm income by easing capital constraints, thus improving household welfare in multiple ways.     

Vertical transmission of overweight: Evidence from a sample of English adoptees

Vertical influences can significantly shape children overweight by affecting both genetics and the environment children are exposed to. This paper examines the vertical (parental) transmission of child overweight drawing upon a fifteen year sample of English adults and their children, both adopted and biological, for which we can retrieve clinical measures height and weight. We find that, when both parents are overweight, children exhibit an increased likelihood of overweight, irrespective of whether they are adopted or biological children. When both parents are obese as opposed to overweight the picture is different. We find that the likelihood of child overweight increases by 16.7 percentage points among natural (non-adopted) children but only by 4.5 percentage points among adopted children. This suggests that the transmission of overweight when both parents are obese is not merely genetic, and what has been called vertical or parental transmission plays a non-negligible role. Our findings are validated by are a battery of robustness checks.     

Determinants of income diversification amongst rural households in Southern Mali

Household-level panel data from a representative sample of rural households in Southern Mali describing the different sources of household income are used to examine the determinants of income diversification. A conditional fixed effects logit model is employed in the analysis to control for household-specific effects. We find evidence that poorer households have fewer opportunities in non-cropping activities such as livestock rearing and non-farm work, and hence less diversified incomes. This appears to reflect their relative lack of capital, which makes it difficult for them to diversify away from subsistence agriculture. The results also indicate that households in remote areas are less likely to participate in the non-cropping sector than their counterparts closer to local markets, while households with educated heads are more likely to participate in the non-farm sector than those with illiterate heads. The significance of entry-constraints in explaining portfolio diversification suggests that the role of government in making assets — as well as improved infrastructure — available to poorer households is still essential in promoting income diversification.     

Growing pains: Pre‐entry experience and the challenge of transition to incumbency

We examine how entrepreneurial entry by diversifying and de novo firms in new industries leads to different levels of performance. We propose that these types of firms differ in dynamic capabilities, which help them overcome growth impediments and transition to incumbency in the industry. Growth impediments arise at larger size, older tenure levels in industry, and after technological discontinuities. Because of their prior experience, diversifying firms are better equipped to handle the challenges of impediments to growth. Meanwhile, de novo firms, ostensibly tailor‐made for the targeted industry, are more likely to stumble over these growth challenges, and eventually lag behind diversifying firms. We find support for our hypotheses using a near census of firms in the U.S. wireless telecommunications industry over the 1983–2004 period. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Understanding heterogeneity in price changes and firm responses to a national unhealthy food tax in Mexico

To address the high prevalence of overweight and obesity in Mexico, an eight percent ad valorem excise tax on non-essential energy-dense foods came into effect on 1 January 2014. This paper estimates price changes after the tax implementation among the top four food categories and by leading vs. non-leading firms using purchase information from over 6000 urban households in the 2012–2015 Nielsen Mexico Consumer Panel. We create product-city-month specific prices that correct for potential biases associated with household and retailer characteristics. Using these corrected prices, we conduct before and after quasi-experimental analyses and find that price increases were larger than eight percent for cookies but were less than eight percent for ready-to-eat cereals, salty snacks, and pre-packaged sweet bread. For the latter food group, event-study analyses on the gradual price change over time suggest that price changes might be the result of an increasing price trend rather than the tax implementation. Firm-level analyses mostly show that price increases by the leading firms were larger than the overall increase at the food market level, helping explain variability in post-tax declines in food purchases as reported in other research. We also find that price changes are generally underestimated when we do not correct prices for biases associated with households and retailers. These results improve our understanding of the mechanisms behind heterogeneous changes in purchases after the tax implementation. Additionally, these results can assist policymakers when designing or improving taxes on non-essential energy-dense foods at a time when these policy options are high on the agenda in many places.     

Differences between older and younger Poles in functional food consumption,awareness of metabolic syndrome risk and perceived barriers to health improvement

The aim of the study was to analyze the differences between older and younger Poles in functional food consumption, awareness of metabolic syndrome risk and perceived barriers to health improvement. A national representative sample of 1005 adults aged 15+ was selected for the study. The eldest age group (65+ years) more often than the youngest age group (15–24 years) reported having high blood cholesterol (OR = 12.30), high blood pressure (OR = 10.61), central obesity (OR = 7.94), high blood sugar (OR = 4.33), high stress level (OR = 2.12). A smaller number of the older in comparison to the younger consumed probiotic yoghurt drinks (OR = 0.48), foods with added vitamins and/or minerals (OR = 0.31), energy drinks (OR = 0.05) at least once a week. Younger people were more likely to report that they were ready to increase physical activity (OR = 0.21), cut down on or stop smoking (OR = 0.48) or drink less alcohol (OR = 0.46), but more of them would prefer to take medicines than food-related intervention (OR = 3.05). Older people rarely complained about a lack of time (OR = 0.26) to improve their health. In conclusion, intervention to promote a healthy lifestyle to prevent and treat metabolic syndrome would need to target older Poles.     

Impact of commuting by workers on household dietary diversity in rural India

Drawing insights from the literature on transformation of rural non-farm employment, pathways from agriculture to nutrition, and linkages between migration and nutritional status of household, we seek to understand differences in dietary diversity across three mutually exclusive types of rural Indian households: where all members work in rural areas, at least one member commutes to urban areas, at least one member has no fixed place of work. Our analysis is based on a nationally representative data set from India for the year 2009–10 and we use propensity score matching methods. We find that as compared to households with no commuters, households with rural–urban commuters have higher dietary diversity; whereas households with no fixed place workers have lower dietary diversity. We also find differences in dietary diversity across households which differ by their primary source of income.     

Older Married Workers and Nonstandard Jobs: The Effects of Health and Health Insurance

We examine the effects of health and health insurance coverage on older married workers' decisions to work in temporary, contract, part-time, self-employment, and regular full-time jobs. We model the behavior of older married workers as interdependent, showing that one spouse's health and insurance status affects the employment of the other. In general, we find that men and women are less likely to be employed in regular full-time jobs when they are in fair or poor health and are more likely to be in regular full-time employment when their spouses are in poor health.     

Public private partnerships as a tool for stimulating investments in broadband

The paper is concerned with PPP in the telecommunications area and more specifically with the combination of public and private investments in upgrading broadband infrastructures. Following the liberalization of the telecommunications area, investments were primarily left to the private sector – though public investments have continued to take place in specific areas such as research and education networks and rural and otherwise underserved areas. Lately, however, governments have upgraded their public investment plans in broadband infrastructures. The question is whether we are witnessing a simple quantitative change or whether this quantitative change includes a qualitative evolvement in the view on the role of the public sector in expanding broadband infrastructures. At the present time, the most likely answer is that increasing public investments in broadband infrastructures signal a combination of concerns raised by the economic crisis and the growing awareness of the social and economic importance of efficient broadband infrastructures.